Kempton Park killings expose SA’s GBVF crisis: POWA

People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) has challenged the government to explain what has materially changed for women since gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) was classified as a national disaster in November 2025.

The challenge follows the discovery of five women’s bodies in and around Kempton Park and Olifantsfontein over about two months, triggering fears over women’s safety across Ekurhuleni.

A sixth woman’s body was reportedly discovered on a roadside in Kwa-Thema, Springs, on Tuesday morning. Police have not established whether that death is connected to the Kempton Park cases.

Police have similarly cautioned against concluding that the five earlier cases are linked. National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe pointed to the complex nature of such crimes, urging South Africans to give investigators time to conduct thorough investigations, victim profiling and perpetrator patterns.

READ: Body of missing runner Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo positively identified

POWA said the unfolding investigation raised a broader question about what freedom means for women constantly expected to modify their behaviour to avoid becoming victims.

“Women are watching everything. The question is: who is watching the perpetrators?” the organisation asked.

Precautions cannot become policy

POWA’s intervention strikes at a difficult contradiction emerging from responses to the killings.

The African National Congress (ANC) caucus in the Gauteng legislature urged women, particularly runners exercising early or late, to remain vigilant and avoid running alone where possible.

It simultaneously acknowledged that responsibility for preventing violence should not be shifted onto women.

POWA argues that distinction is crucial.

“There are circumstances in which immediate safety advice is necessary, and POWA would never discourage women from taking reasonable precautions where a particular threat exists.

“But precautions cannot become policy. The burden of mitigating the risk of violence cannot continue to fall on women.”

The organisation said women were already monitoring where they walked, parked and travelled, who was behind them and whether they would arrive home safely.

READ: Mbalenhle Zuma | Five women’s bodies remind me why I stopped jogging

POWA executive director Fatima Shaik said South Africa could not continue counting women’s bodies before repeatedly returning to business as usual.

“We cannot keep counting women’s bodies, expressing outrage, issuing condolences and then moving on until another woman is killed.

“GBVF has already been classified as a national disaster. Women should not have to die to prove that the disaster is real.”

The latest police figures illustrate the scale of the crisis. SAPS recorded 50,511 GBVF cases between April and June 2026, including 9,201 reported rapes. The latest comprehensive annual police figures also show that 3,381 women were murdered during the 2024/25 financial year, alongside 5,714 attempted murders.

Months later, POWA is asking what measurable difference that declaration has made.

READ: EFF blasts SAPS over Kempton Park women’s murders

Police minister demands answers

Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia was expected to meet the investigating team on Tuesday after returning from a working visit to China.

He said the possibility that a perpetrator or perpetrators were targeting women demanded urgent attention.

“The discovery of multiple women murdered in the Kempton Park area is deeply disturbing.

“While the investigation must establish whether these cases are linked, the possibility that a perpetrator or perpetrators may be targeting women demands our urgent and determined attention,” Cachalia said.

A multidisciplinary investigation has been established to examine possible links and identify those responsible.

POWA, established in 1979, is a women’s rights organisation providing counselling, shelters, legal assistance, skills development, public education and advocacy aimed at ending violence against women.

Its connection to the unfolding crisis is particularly close. The organisation operates Victim Friendly Rooms at Kempton Park and Olifantsfontein police stations.

Shaik said declaring a disaster could not become an exercise in terminology without tangible consequences.

“We have named the crisis. We have classified it. Now the country must answer for what changes because of it. We refuse to accept a South Africa in which staying alive requires women to surrender their freedom.

“Women are not asking for permission to survive. We are demanding the right to live, freely, fully and without fear,” said Shaik.

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