Residents demand soldiers after ninth woman found dead in Ekurhuleni

Residents of Dawn Park are calling for soldiers to be deployed after the body of a woman was found in the area on Thursday morning, according to IOL.

What happened

According to IOL, a woman believed to be about 30 was found partially naked in an open space on Lama Street in the Villa Lisa area of Boksburg. Her throat had been slit, and she was wearing only a blue T-shirt and pink underwear. Her identity had not yet been established, IOL reported.

Community reaction

When the IOL team arrived, residents wearing slippers, dressing gowns and blankets rushed to the scene to find out what had happened, IOL said. Neighbours told IOL they are afraid and want stronger security measures.

“We are not safe at all,”

a resident, Zizipho Ntoyanto, told IOL. IOL quoted Ntoyanto saying women and children were particularly vulnerable and that she wanted President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy soldiers to patrol the area and assist police.

Another resident, Thebelihle Mthethwa, told IOL:

“We don’t feel safe anymore.”

Mthethwa also called for soldiers to work alongside police to improve security, IOL reported.

Police response and investigation

Police told IOL that preliminary information indicated the woman had been killed elsewhere and her body dumped in Dawn Park. Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, who was at the scene, told IOL that police teams investigating the killings were capable of solving the cases and that investigators were following every lead. IOL quoted Mosikili saying she was confident in the teams and that the national head office was involved.

Broader pattern in Ekurhuleni

IOL reported that the Dawn Park discovery was the third case involving a dead woman reported in Ekurhuleni in four days, and that the latest find brings the number of women found dead in the metro in nine weeks to nine.

According to IOL, earlier cases in the nine-week period included:

• a 37-year-old woman found naked with her hands bound with cable ties in a field in Kempton Park on July 15;
• Itumeleng Kekana, 32, who went missing on July 17 and whose body was found on August 3;
• a 32-year-old found partially clothed near the R21 on August 24;
• a woman believed to be in her late 20s found in a river in Clayville on September 7, wearing only her underwear;
• a naked, badly decomposed body found near the R21 in Kempton Park; and
• Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, 38, who was found dead behind a hotel in Rhodesfield.

IOL reported that only three of the nine women Kekana, Moselakgomo and Dineo Evelyn Motapane have been publicly identified.

Calls for help

Following the latest discovery, residents have renewed calls for stronger security, including requests that soldiers be deployed to assist police, IOL said.