Ekurhuleni murders: Here are seven of the nine victims named

Busisiwe Mahlangu. Itumeleng Kekana. Nomfesane Mjobo. Gracious Nkomo. Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo. Dineo Motapane. Jabulile Ntimba.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe on Monday morning confirmed the seven names now attached to a series of deaths that has shaken Ekurhuleni.

Two other women complete the grim count of nine: one remains unidentified, while authorities have identified another but are withholding her name until they have informed her family.

The first body was found in Kempton Park on 15 July 2026. The ninth was discovered in Dawn Park on 17 September.

In the weeks between, women were found in open fields, next to roads, along the R21, in a river and in other parts of Ekurhuleni.

Police are investigating all nine deaths, but they have stopped short of declaring them the work of one killer. Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia said on Sunday that investigators had found differences in the methods used and possible motives in some of the cases.

Here are the nine women, in the order their bodies were discovered.

1. Busisiwe Mahlangu – 15 July

Busisiwe Mahlangu was the first.

Police found her body in Kempton Park on 15 July.

The 37-year-old was found in an open area near the R21. Police arrested a suspect two days later and have kept him in custody while the murder investigation continues.

Cachalia confirmed at the weekend that the July case had already produced an arrest, but police have not publicly linked that suspect to the women found dead afterwards.

The distinction remains important. Investigators are looking for possible connections between cases, but they are also pursuing each murder on its own evidence.

2. Itumeleng Kekana – 3 August

Less than three weeks later, another family’s search ended in tragedy.

Police found Itumeleng Kekana, 32, in bushes near Great North Road, close to the Max informal settlement in Pomona, Kempton Park, on 3 August.

Kekana had been missing since 17 July.

Her family spent more than two weeks searching for her before officers responded to a murder complaint at about 10:00 that morning.

Police said Kekana had suffered multiple stab wounds. Investigators opened a murder case and appealed for information.

Her killing would later form part of the much bigger investigation unfolding across Ekurhuleni.

3. Nomfesane Mjobo – 26 August

Nomfesane Mjobo was the third woman in the chronology.

Her body was found in the Kempton Park area on 26 August.

As more bodies surfaced in the weeks that followed, police began the difficult task of putting names to women who had initially entered mortuaries unidentified.

By Sunday, authorities had positively identified eight of the nine victims, although only seven families had been informed.

4. Unidentified woman – 7 September

The fourth discovery came on 7 September.

A woman’s body was found floating in a river in Clayville, Olifantsfontein.

She remains the only victim among the nine whom authorities have not positively identified.

Police turned to the Department of Home Affairs for biometric records as the number of unidentified victims grew, using fingerprint information to help put names to the women and trace their families.

Her name remains one of the unanswered questions at the centre of the investigation.

5. Gracious Nkomo – 10 September

Three days later, police found Gracious Nkomo, 28, along the R21 in Kempton Park.

Her body was partially clothed when authorities found her on 10 September.

For a week, she remained another unidentified woman in the investigation.

That changed on 17 September when her family went to the Germiston mortuary and formally identified her.

Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane offered condolences to Nkomo’s family and said detectives would continue pursuing every available lead.

Nkomo’s identification came as police faced growing pressure to establish who the women were and whether their deaths were connected.

6. Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo – 12 September

Then came the case that thrust the Ekurhuleni killings into the national spotlight.

Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, 38, left her Rhodesfield home for a run and did not return.

Her disappearance triggered an urgent search.

On 12 September, authorities found her body in the Kempton Park area.

Her family later identified her at the Germiston mortuary.

Moselakgomo was a runner, a mother and a familiar face to people who knew her in Rhodesfield. Her death prompted memorial runs and tributes as South Africans rallied around her family.

It also sharpened public attention on the women already found dead in the same broader area.

By then, what had begun as individual murder investigations was becoming impossible to view without asking whether some of the deaths could be connected.

Police began examining that possibility, but they repeatedly cautioned against reaching conclusions before investigators had evidence.

7. Name withheld – 14 September

Just two days after Moselakgomo’s body was found, another woman was discovered in Olifantsfontein on 14 September.

Authorities have since identified her.

Her name, however, has not yet been released because police must first formally notify her family.

Cachalia confirmed on Sunday that eight of the nine victims had been positively identified.

Seven families had received confirmation. Authorities were still trying to reach the family of the eighth identified woman.

Until that happens, her name remains withheld.

8. Dineo Motapane – 15 September

The following morning brought another discovery.

A passer-by spotted the body of Dineo Evelyn Motapane, 38, alongside Moshoeshoe Street in Kwa-Thema at about 06:40 on 15 September.

Her family identified her at the Springs mortuary the next day.

Motapane had last been seen alive on the Sunday before police found her.

Her family had not yet reported her missing.

She left behind a two-year-old daughter.

Her relatives later pleaded for justice, saying they believed whoever killed her had dumped her body where authorities eventually found it.

By this point, eight women had been found dead.

There would be another discovery less than 48 hours later.

9. Jabulile Ntimba – 17 September

The ninth body was found in Dawn Park, Boksburg, on 17 September.

Police added the case to the investigation into the deaths of women across Ekurhuleni, taking the official number to nine in two months.

The woman was found in an open area in Villa Liza.

Police initially said the victim had not been identified and that preliminary information suggested she may have been killed elsewhere before her body was left at the scene.

The victim has since been identified as Jabulile Ntimba.

The Dawn Park case has also produced one of the biggest developments in the investigation so far.

On Monday morning, SAPS announced that the Gauteng Murder and Robbery Unit had arrested one man and two women over the weekend in connection with the murder.

The trio are expected to appear in the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 21 September.

SAPS said the arrests relate to the ninth case.

Police have not announced that the three suspects are responsible for any of the other deaths.

Are the nine Ekurhuleni murders linked?

That question has followed the investigation from the moment the number of bodies began rising.

Police have looked for connections, but investigators have not concluded that all nine women were killed by the same person or group.

Cachalia addressed the speculation directly on Sunday.

He said investigators had not confirmed that they were dealing with a serial killer because the cases were “not all necessarily linked”, with indications of different methods and motives in some cases.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police chairperson Ian Cameron issued a similar warning earlier in the investigation.

“We must be careful not to claim links that investigators have not established,” Cameron said after the Kwa-Thema discovery.

He said SAPS had deployed specialist detectives, forensic experts, tracking capability, K9 resources and investigative psychology to the cases.

What police have confirmed is that the nine deaths now sit before a multidisciplinary investigation team.

Investigation escalated as death toll rose

The scale of the police response has grown with the number of cases.

Acting Gauteng police leadership initially drove the investigation, but national police structures have since become more heavily involved.

Cachalia announced on Sunday that Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi would assist the investigation, which falls under senior detective and forensic leadership.

Cachalia also confirmed that investigators had called three persons of interest in for questioning. Police later confirmed that these were the same three suspects arrested in connection with the Dawn Park murder case.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has directed authorities to give the Ekurhuleni killings the highest level of attention, while government has increased police visibility in affected areas.

For the families, however, the investigation is about far more than a running number. It is about Busisiwe. Itumeleng. Nomfesane. Gracious. Tsontso. Dineo. Jabulile.

Police are still trying to establish who killed them, why they were killed and which of their deaths — if any — connect.