What police have confirmed about the Ekurhuleni murders
Three people are due to appear in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday in connection with one of the nine Ekurhuleni murders under investigation, and police have not linked them to the other eight.
The three, one man and two women, were arrested over the weekend by members of the Gauteng Murder and Robbery Unit, according to national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe. None has been named. None has entered a plea, and no charge has been tested in court.
On the same day, the South African Police Service published a list of the nine women whose bodies have been found across Ekurhuleni and surrounding areas since July.
Eight have been identified. One woman found in the Clayville River at Olifantsfontein on 7 September has not been identified, and the name of a woman found at Olifantsfontein on 14 September is being withheld while police notify her family.
Two of nine cases have produced arrests
The arrests announced on Monday relate to one case. That is the part of the story most coverage has moved past quickly.
Police have separately said that one suspect was arrested in connection with the first case, involving a body found in Kempton Park in July, and that the person was linked to that murder and remains in custody.
That leaves seven of the nine cases with no publicly announced arrest. That count is Southafriworld’s, made by checking the police service’s own case list against arrests it has announced. Police may have made arrests they have not disclosed, and the investigation is active.
| Case | Name | Where found | Date found | Arrest announced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Busisiwe Mahlangu | Kempton Park | 15 July 2026 | Yes, one person |
| 2 | Itumeleng Kekana | Kempton Park | 3 August 2026 | None announced |
| 3 | Nomfesane Mjobo | Kempton Park | 26 August 2026 | None announced |
| 4 | Not yet identified | Clayville River, Olifantsfontein | 7 September 2026 | None announced |
| 5 | Gracious Nkomo | Kempton Park | 10 September 2026 | None announced |
| 6 | Elizabeth Moselakgomo | Kempton Park | 12 September 2026 | None announced |
| 7 | Name withheld | Olifantsfontein | 14 September 2026 | None announced |
| 8 | Dineo Motapane | KwaThema | 15 September 2026 | None announced |
| 9 | Jabulile Ntimba | Dawn Park | 17 September 2026 | Yes, three people |
There is one unresolved point in the public record. Most reporting places the weekend arrests in the case of Jabulile Ntimba, found in Dawn Park on 17 September, while some outlets have attributed them to Gracious Nkomo, whom the police service’s own list places in Kempton Park a week earlier. Southafriworld could not resolve the difference before publication.
Why police are not calling this a serial killer case
Public fear has settled on the idea of a single predator. Police have repeatedly declined to confirm that.
Acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia said on Sunday there was no conclusive evidence the killings were the work of a serial killer, “but nothing has yet been excluded while investigations continue”.
Gauteng provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Fred Kekana has said investigators are weighing the possibility of multiple suspects or separate perpetrators, and are comparing evidence, timelines, locations and victim profiles before drawing conclusions.
The composition of the group arrested this weekend, one man and two women in a single case, does not sit easily with a single-offender theory. Police have made no finding on that point, and none should be read into it here.
What investigators have said is that the ages of the victims and the circumstances in which some were found are similar enough to justify examining links. That is not the same as establishing them.
Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili earlier warned whoever is responsible that their “freedom is temporary”, and a multidisciplinary team has been deployed. Crime intelligence head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo and KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi have been brought in to assist the team led by Detective and Forensic Services head Lieutenant General Hilda Senthumule.
This is happening while the police service is run by an acting national commissioner, Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane, following the criminal charges brought against the previous national commissioner.
The Soweto body is a separate investigation
A woman’s body was recovered from Moroka Dam in Soweto on Sunday evening. Police have opened an inquest.
The woman, believed to be in her twenties, has not been identified, and police have not linked her death to the Ekurhuleni cases. Several accounts have folded it into the running total, producing a figure of ten. On the police service’s own record, the Ekurhuleni case count stands at nine.
The distinction matters because the count is what drives public fear, and an inflated count drives it further. Cachalia has confirmed increased deployments in parts of Ekurhuleni including KwaThema, Nigel and Dawn Park, an escalation in line with earlier deployments of additional force to crime hotspots.
What happens next, and what police are asking of the public
The three arrested are expected before the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court, where the charges and the state’s case will be put on the record for the first time. Nothing further about their alleged involvement is established until then.
Police have offered a reward of R400 000 for information leading to an arrest, and have asked anyone with information to contact their nearest police station, call Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or use the MySAPS app.
On Friday the police service warned Gauteng residents not to circulate unverified photographs of people alleged online to be involved. It said it has issued no wanted poster, identikit or suspect photograph. Sharing such images risks exposing innocent people to harm and can compromise a prosecution.
Police have also advised women in the affected areas to avoid walking or running alone. That advice has drawn criticism. Philisiwe Gabela, an official at the Commission for Gender Equality, told Al Jazeera that “we are not dealing with an issue of women who are not vigilant”, and the National Shelter Movement of South Africa has argued that responsibility for violence lies with perpetrators rather than with the women taking precautions.
The practical effect is already visible in how people move through their own neighbourhoods, a pattern that has been reshaping South African suburbs for years.
Seven families are still waiting for an arrest. Two of the nine women have not been publicly named, one because she has not been identified and one because her family is still being notified. Those are the fixed points as the court appearance begins.
HOW WE REPORTED THIS CROSS-CHECKED
- This article was built from the list of nine cases released by the South African Police Service national spokesperson on 21 September 2026 and from the police service's own media statements on the Ekurhuleni investigation dated 15 September 2026, both read in full.
- The arrest tally was compiled by checking every case on the police list against arrests the police service has publicly announced, and the resulting figure of seven cases without a publicly announced arrest is a Southafriworld count, presented as such and qualified because police may have made arrests they have not yet announced.
- Conflicting reports over which victim the three weekend arrests relate to were checked against the police service's own case list, and the discrepancy is flagged inside the article rather than resolved silently.
- The body recovered at Moroka Dam in Soweto on 20 September 2026 was deliberately excluded from the case count, because police have opened a separate inquest and have not linked it to the Ekurhuleni cases.
- Descriptions of injuries to the victims were deliberately left out, nobody who has been arrested is named because none has been convicted and the matter is before the courts, and no comment was sought from the police service, the prosecution or any family for this article.
- This article was drafted with AI assistance and the facts, figures and quotations were checked against the primary source by the editor before publication.
