Ekurhuleni murders | Technology a welcomed ally in search for perpetrators - Analyst

Ekurhuleni murders | Technology a welcomed ally in search for perpetrators - Analyst bombeleni_temp Fri, 09/18/2026 - 10:17

Editor's Note: Please note that the following interview may contain graphic visuals and content.

JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng Premier has praised the province's investment into technology and cameras in fighting crime.

Footage is being analysed to help trace perpetrators in the deaths of nine women in the East Rand over two months.

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A ninth body of a woman was discovered in Dawn Park in Boksburg naked and covered in a sheet on Thursday.

Prof Dee Khosa from Unisa's School of Criminal Justice says CCTV footage has an important role to play in the case.

"While most of the women appear to have been killed somewhere and dumped elsewhere, the footage will likely show vehicles and movements," she says.

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This means license plate recognition, footage from the roads leading to the various sites, cross-checked with cellphone records could go far in the cases.

"Cameras only deter where people believe someone is actually watching," says Khosa.

In the wake of the various bodies of semi-naked women found across the Ekurhuleni, police have increased their visibility.

Khosa says such visibility will only deter offenders in that particular area.

"It cannot be a main strategy for crimes that happen in isolated spaces away from patrolled roads, for instance," she says.

Municipalities need to come to the party of crime fighting by fixing street lights, cut overgrown fields and secure abandoned sites including construction sites.

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Khosa calls on the police to treat reports of missing women as urgent in the first hour.