Ramaphosa names Kempton Park dead in address to nation

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s gender-based violence address to the nation on Tuesday evening named victims of the Kempton Park killings directly, as the death toll in the Ekurhuleni case climbed to eleven women since mid July.

According to the presidency, Ramaphosa used the address to argue that South African society has wrongly placed the burden of male violence on women, and that accountability now rests with men rather than with women’s caution.

What Ramaphosa said about violence against women

Ramaphosa told the nation that women should not have to organise marches, avoid certain streets after dark or warn each other about danger on group chats, framing this as a failure of men rather than a failure of women’s vigilance.

“We have placed the burden of male violence on women. That must change.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa

He rejected the idea that restricting women’s movements was any kind of answer, before turning directly to men in the audience and in households watching across the country, calling on them to intervene when they witness abuse.

“The solution to violence against women cannot be to make women less free.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa

“It is time for good men to stop being silent men.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa

The president read out the names of recently murdered women and girls, including Kempton Park victims Busisiwe Mahlangu and Itumeleng Kekana, alongside 10-year-old Octavia Swarts, murdered elsewhere in South Africa, as evidence of a crisis reaching beyond Ekurhuleni.

The Kempton Park killings behind the president’s address

Ramaphosa’s speech did not happen in isolation. Swisher Post has tracked the Kempton Park killings since the first body was found near the R21 in July, through a case that has since grown into one of the largest femicide investigations in recent South African history.

Two more bodies were found in the week before the address. A woman was discovered semi naked at Mooifontein Cemetery in Tembisa on 26 September, becoming the tenth victim, and a day later an eleventh body was found partially clothed in open veld near Rhokana Road in Springs, showing signs of strangulation, according to provincial police.

“All necessary role-players have been mobilised, including the task team investigating the cases.”
Brigadier Brenda Muridili, Gauteng police spokesperson

Hours before the eleventh body was found, police arrested a suspect in Tzaneen, Limpopo, in connection with the Tembisa cemetery murder, though investigators say they have not yet linked that arrest to the wider series of Ekurhuleni killings that first raised serial killer fears in August.

Senior police leadership takes over the investigation

National police leadership has taken direct control of the Ekurhuleni cases. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia confirmed Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and crime intelligence head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo have joined the investigation, which now runs nationally rather than provincially.

“The community in Ekurhuleni needs to understand that their safety is our priority.”
Firoz Cachalia, Acting Police Minister

Three suspects have been questioned in connection with the broader case, and enhanced deployments now cover KwaThema, Nigel and Dawn Park. A reward of R900,000, made up of a police fund topped up by a Democratic Alliance contribution, remains on offer for information.

A national reckoning beyond Kempton Park

Ramaphosa’s address leaned on a national femicide study showing more than 60 percent of women murdered in South Africa in 2021 and 2022 were killed by intimate partners, people they knew and trusted rather than strangers.

The president argued prevention has to start at home, in how boys learn about consent, anger and rejection from the men around them, rather than only in policing after a killing has taken place.

The Ekurhuleni task team’s work continues, with several victims still unidentified.