‘No child should have to endure such an experience’: Education MEC calls for action after Elizabeth Moselakgomo’s death

Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile has called for collective action against gender-based violence and femicide following the confirmed death of 38-year-old Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo.

Moselakgomo disappeared after leaving her home in Rhodesfield, Kempton Park, for a routine run. Her family positively identified her body at the Germiston mortuary after an extensive search involving relatives, community members, and law enforcement agencies.

Her death comes amid concern over the discovery of several women’s bodies in and around Kempton Park.

‘This is devastating’

Maile expressed his condolences to Moselakgomo’s eight-year-old daughter, family and friends, saying women should be able to exercise and move around their communities without fear.

“This is devastating. Elizabeth went out to exercise, something millions of people should be able to do without fear, and she did not return home,” Maile said.

“A woman should be able to walk, run, work, study, travel and simply exist in her own community without having to calculate the possibility that she may be attacked or killed.”

Maile said the circumstances were particularly painful because Moselakgomo’s young daughter had lost her mother.

An eight-year-old girl was reportedly the first to realise her mother had not returned home and alerted family members.

“No child should have to endure such an experience,” Maile said.

Police investigate Kempton Park deaths

The South African Police Service (Saps) has established a multidisciplinary investigation involving detectives and specialised policing resources to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths and determine whether the cases are connected.

Police have cautioned that no conclusion should yet be drawn that the cases are linked or involve a single perpetrator.

Maile called for those responsible for the killings to be identified and brought before the criminal justice system, while cautioning against speculation that could compromise the investigation.

“This situation requires the full attention of our law-enforcement agencies. Those responsible for murdering women must be identified and brought before the criminal justice system.

“At the same time, we must allow the South African Police Service to conduct an evidence-based investigation and avoid speculation that could compromise its work.”

Maile calls on men to act

Maile said tackling gender-based violence and femicide could not be left to police, government or women’s organisations alone.

“Protecting women is a collective societal responsibility,” he said, calling on families, schools, communities, religious institutions, civil society, workplaces and men to confront violence against women.

He also highlighted the role of schools in challenging attitudes that enable violence from an early age.

“We therefore have to teach our boys that masculinity can never be measured by domination, intimidation or violence, and teach all our children about dignity, equality, consent, respect and the sanctity of human life,” Maile said.

He urged men to challenge misogyny, threats, harassment, abuse and violent behaviour among their peers.

“Silence in the presence of abuse creates space for abuse to continue,” he said.

Maile also called on anyone with information relevant to the investigation to cooperate fully with the Saps.

“We cannot commemorate women after they have been killed and then return to business as usual. Our collective responsibility is to build a society in which they live.

“Elizabeth should have returned home from her run. She should have returned to her daughter and her family. That is the ordinary freedom every woman in Gauteng and South Africa deserves.”