What happened, and what police say about the Ekurhuleni 12th woman
A woman was shot and killed in Temong Section, Mapungubwe Street, Tembisa, shortly after 05:00 on Monday, 28 September 2026. She had left home and was on her way to work. Her belongings were taken.
She has been identified and her family has been notified. Her age is given as 23 in most accounts and as 33 in one, a discrepancy Southafriworld could not resolve.
Police opened a murder and robbery investigation. Gauteng police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said preliminary investigations and witness information indicated the woman was attacked during a robbery.
She is the twelfth woman reported killed in Ekurhuleni since July. On the police account, that is where the connection to the other cases ends.
Police said preliminary investigations have not established any link between this killing and the bodies found across the metro in recent months. The case is not being investigated as part of the task team handling those cases.
Police subsequently linked the woman’s estranged husband to her murder and identified him as a person of interest. The Tembisa Tracking Team was tracing him when Midrand police reported that his vehicle had been found in their precinct with his body inside. Muridili said “it is believed that he may have ingested an unknown substance”, that no foul play is suspected at this stage, and that a post-mortem will determine the cause of death.
He was never charged. He cannot answer the allegation, and nothing about it has been tested.
How the figure of twelve is assembled
The number being reported is a tally of women killed in one metropolitan area since July. It is not a police finding that twelve cases are connected.
| Group | Cases | Handled by | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodies found across Ekurhuleni since July | 11 | Task team | Arrests announced in three of them |
| Jabulile Ntimba, one of the eleven | Within the 11 | Task team | Reportedly separated as a localised dispute. Two women in court, bail application 1 October |
| Boitumelo Nhlanzi, Tembisa, 28 September | 1 | Tembisa detectives, murder and robbery | Not part of the task team. Person of interest identified, later found dead |
| Body recovered at Moroka Dam, Soweto | 1 | Separate inquest | Never linked by police to the Ekurhuleni cases |
The discoveries have spanned Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein, KwaThema, Dawn Park, Springs and Tembisa. Named victims include Busisiwe Mahlangu, Itumeleng Kekana, Gracious Nkomo, Elizabeth Moselakgomo, Dineo Motapane, Jabulile Ntimba and Ntombifuthi Nxumalo.
Police have not established a link between all the cases, and have said so repeatedly.
Eight of the twelve cases still have no arrest
Working through the case record, arrests or an identified person of interest exist in four cases.
One suspect was arrested and linked to the first case, in Kempton Park in July. Two women arrested in the Ntimba case have appeared in court, with a bail application set for 1 October. A suspect was arrested on the same day in the Mooifontein Cemetery case in Tembisa. And in the Tembisa killing on Monday, a person of interest was identified and subsequently found dead.
That leaves eight of the twelve cases with no publicly announced arrest or person of interest. The count is Southafriworld’s, made against the police record, and police may have made arrests they have not disclosed.
Acting National Commissioner Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane commended the Gauteng team for the Mooifontein arrest, saying “I commend this multidisciplinary team for their swift response, coordination and determination”, which produced an arrest on the same day. The service is operating under an acting national commissioner following the criminal charges brought against the previous incumbent.
Why the counting matters
A single running total invites a single explanation, and the single explanation now circulating is one predator.
The police record does not support that. Of the twelve, one case has reportedly been separated as a localised dispute, one is not being handled by the task team at all, and the person of interest in it was the victim’s estranged partner. A further body, recovered in Soweto, has never been linked and is sometimes folded in to make thirteen.
This is not a technicality. A stranger-danger framing tells women to avoid open ground and travel in groups. It says nothing about the risk that police have identified in the twelfth case. Counting an alleged intimate-partner killing into a series of bodies found in veld and rivers obscures both.
It also has a practical cost already visible. Photographs of people alleged online to be involved have circulated. Police have issued no wanted poster, identikit or suspect photograph, and sharing such images risks harming innocent people and compromising prosecutions.
The fear is real regardless, and it is reshaping how women move through their own neighbourhoods.
What is outstanding
The City of Ekurhuleni has appealed to residents to come forward with information, saying communities have a crucial role in helping investigators identify those responsible. City head of communications Phakamile Mbengashe extended condolences to the affected families and said the violence could not be allowed to become normal.
Two of the women whose bodies were found remain unidentified, and a third name is being withheld pending family notification.
Police have offered a reward of R400 000 for information. Anyone with information can contact their nearest police station, call Crime Stop on 08600 10111, or use the MySAPS app.
Anyone affected by gender-based violence can contact the GBV Command Centre on 0800 428 428, which operates around the clock.
Three things are scheduled or pending. A bail application on 1 October for the two women in the Ntimba case. A post-mortem on the man identified as a person of interest in the Tembisa killing. And a national address on gender-based violence that President Cyril Ramaphosa promised on Heritage Day, for which no date has been set.
HOW WE REPORTED THIS CROSS-CHECKED
- This article was built from the South African Police Service statements on the killing in Tembisa on 28 September 2026 and on the arrest in the Mooifontein Cemetery case, together with the City of Ekurhuleni's public appeal for information, all read in full.
- The central finding was established from the police account itself, which states that preliminary investigations have not established a link between the Tembisa killing and the bodies found across Ekurhuleni, and from a report that the case is not being handled by the task team investigating those cases.
- The figure of twelve was broken down into its components rather than reported as a single total, because the number is a geographic tally of women killed in one metro since July and is not a police finding that twelve cases are connected.
- The arrest tally was recompiled against the expanded case list, giving eight cases with no publicly announced arrest or person of interest, and that count is labelled as a Southafriworld tally and qualified in the article.
- No victim image was used, nobody arrested is named because none has been convicted, the man identified as a person of interest is not named and was never charged and cannot answer the allegation, injury descriptions were deliberately excluded, and no comment was sought from the police or any family.
- This article was drafted with AI assistance and the facts, figures and quotations were checked against the primary source by the editor before publication.
