For immediate Release 22 September 2026

3 arrests, 10 bodies
The Rural Women’s Assembly South Africa notes the arrest of 3 suspects in the investigation into the 9 murdered women whose bodies were found in and around Ekurhuleni, while pointing out that the arrests happened on the same day that the body of a 10th woman was found (in Soweto).
RWA welcomes every attempt to bring those responsible for the murders to justice, while strongly condemning the continued femicide, GBV and growing insecurity faced by women and girls across South Africa. Women and girls cannot be expected to continue to live in fear while female bodies pile up and police tell women to stay at home to stay alive, basically.
The arrest of the three suspects is too little, too late; arrests should have been made after the first murder, not the ninth or tenth.
As a movement of rural and peri-urban women, landless women, farmworkers and small-scale farmers, fishers, and working-class communities, we stand in solidarity with the families who are grieving and searching for answers. Behind every murdered woman is a family torn apart: children have lost mothers, parents have lost daughters, families have lost sisters, aunts and nieces while communities are traumatised.

A national crisis needs a national response

This is not only a Gauteng problem or a rural problem. Women have to plan every movement and route around the possibility that they could be attacked, sexually assaulted or killed. Yet the state is responsible for ensuring we can jog safely and get to work and school safely.
Government and its agencies have a constitutional duty to protect women (all citizens), not tell them to take more precautions.
As rural women, RWA knows this crisis hits harder where public services are weak. In many rural areas and small towns, women travel long distances to police stations – roads are badly lit, public transport is unreliable or unsafe, and shelters and counselling services are scarce.
In November 2025, the SA government classified femicide and GBV as a national disaster – less than a year later, it is clear the declaration was not worth the paper it was written on- where is the action, the resources, the functioning police services, support for victims and families? Where are the public programmes, and where is the accountability?
Families should not be begging police to open cases when women go missing, and police should not be slow to investigate these cases and search for missing women/girls – every minute matters. Women matter.

Do not use these killings to fuel xenophobia

RWA is also deeply concerned by attempts to use these killings to stir up hatred against migrants. Violence against women is not caused by nationality. These deaths must not be used to promote xenophobia or Afrophobia, which only diverts attention away from the perpetrators and the failure of the authorities to protect women and find the killer/s.

RWA demands urgent action:

• 
  * Police must strengthen their presence in areas where women are particularly at risk and respond immediately when women and girls are reported missing
  * The deaths of the 9 women in Ekurhuleni and the body found in Soweto must be investigated urgently, rigorously, and transparently, and families must be kept informed of any progress/problems
  * Government must show what has been done since GBV was declared a national disaster – what money has been allocated, what programmes are operating and what has changed on the ground
  * Police, forensic services, prosecutors, courts, shelters and victim support services must have the resources they need to do the work
• * Families and children affected by these killings must receive counselling, trauma support and practical assistance
  * Women’s organisations and communities must be part of deciding how women are protected
  Prevention involves recognizing and addressing the root conditions that enable violence against women, such as patriarchy, poverty, normalized violence, substance abuse, and the absence of accountability.
  Women’s safety is not a slogan; it is about staying alive:
  * Can a woman walk to work and back home safely?
  * Can a farmworker travel home after a shift without fear?
  * Can a woman go running without having to run for her life?
  * Can a mother watch her daughter leave home and know she will return?
  * Can a family whose mother or daughter is missing trust the police to act and act swiftly?
  RWA refuses to accept femicide as part of ‘normal’ life in South Africa; We refuse to accept fear as part of the lived female experience in SA, and we refuse to accept declarations, strategies and promises, while women continue to be murdered.
  The Rural Women’s Assembly South Africa calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa, the national government, SAPS, the NPA, provincial and local government and all institutions responsible for protecting women to act.

Women have the right to live without fear – Enough is Enough!
Issued by The Rural Women’s Assembly South Africa

For more information or interviews please contact:
* Denia Jansen – South African RWA Reference Group Leader – 083 064
7565 email: deniajansen1@gmail.com
* Agnes Mokhele – RWA South Africa Media – 078 429 5666 email:
inforwasa@gmail.com
* Eugene Meck – Africa Unite/Tusimane-Wanawake Coordinator, Gauteng
Coordinator – 061 722 7690 email: eugenemeck3@gmail.com