Ekurhuleni Terror: Serial Killer Fears Mount as SAPS Rejects Reward Offer Amidst Political Row

The Ekurhuleni region of South Africa is currently facing a profound crisis marked by a surge in the murders of women, triggering widespread political condemnation, an intensive police investigation, and urgent calls for action against gender-based violence. The Land Party launched a scathing attack on South Africa’s leading political factions, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), on September 17, 2026. The party accused both of opportunistic political grandstanding and charged that their systemic failures have fostered an environment where violent criminals operate with impunity. The Land Party challenged the DA’s anti-crime credentials, demanding uniform operational standards across all regions and questioning why high-profile initiatives are not consistently deployed in hotbeds like the Cape Flats. It also took aim at state security management, rebuking Acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia and the Gauteng Premier for declaring an emergency lockdown in Ekurhuleni without a pre-deployed tactical plan, arguing that publicizing security measures prematurely tips off syndicate networks and perpetrators.

Refusing to classify the tragedies as random violent crime, the Land Party explicitly characterized the targeted killings of women as calculated acts of terrorism. The leadership noted that the premeditated nature of these assassinations points toward deeper, potentially state-destabilizing motives, and did not rule out the involvement of covert external forces seeking to spark civil conflict and engineered chaos to manipulate democratic outcomes ahead of the upcoming election cycle on November 4, 2026. With tensions mounting, the Land Party urged rival political groups to halt standard partisan bickering and allow independent law enforcement investigators to carry out their duties free from media-driven theater.

In response to the escalating crisis, the South African Police Service (SAPS) announced a R400,000 reward for information. The Democratic Alliance (DA) subsequently offered to add R500,000, which would have brought the potential total to R900,000. However, Deputy National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili rejected the DA’s offer, stating that the two rewards could not be combined. Mosikili emphasized that police are required to follow established procedures for administering rewards and cannot become involved in political matters. Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane confirmed that the R400,000 reward would continue through SAPS’s established process. The police investigation has intensified, involving a high-level multidisciplinary team and specialist investigators, with an increased presence in Kempton Park and surrounding areas through Operation Shanela. Despite the discovery of nine women’s bodies in different parts of Ekurhuleni over the past two months, investigators have stressed that they have not yet established that the cases are definitively connected. The investigation therefore remains focused on establishing the circumstances surrounding each death and determining whether there are links between the cases. The number of cases under investigation increased to eight following the discovery of another woman’s body, with a total of nine bodies found by mid-September. The first case, involving a 37-year-old woman found near the R21 on July 15, who had been restrained with cable ties, led to an arrest, with a suspect remaining in custody. Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, 38, and Itumeleng Kekana, 32, were formally identified, though five of the nine women remained publicly unidentified by Friday morning.

Serial killer profiler Dr. Micki Pistorius, who became SAPS’s first psychological profiler in 1994 and established its Investigative Psychology Unit, has publicly asserted that the similarities between the women found dead across Ekurhuleni are enough for investigators to consider whether one offender is behind several of the murders. Pistorius, who worked on high-profile cases like the Station Strangler and Moses Sithole, pointed to consistent victim profiles, the distances between body disposal sites in Kempton Park and other parts of Ekurhuleni (reachable within about 30 minutes), and the condition in which several women were found (naked or partially clothed). She believes some women were killed elsewhere before their bodies were dumped. Dr. Pistorius suggested that the initial arrest linked to the first case may have