An Arrest in Ekurhuleni’s Tenth Case Is Not an Answer to All Ten

Nxumalo’s body was found on Saturday morning at or beside Mooifontein Cemetery in the Vusimusi section of Tembisa South. The cemetery and the locality are descriptions of the same general scene, though accounts differ on precisely where her body lay. Police found her naked, with serious head injuries and stones around her body. They reported no visible stab wounds. The stones raised the possibility that she had been stoned; they do not establish how she died. The police statement spells her first name Ntombifuthu, while some reports use Ntombifuthi.⁠13⁠24⁠91

According to preliminary police inquiries, Nxumalo had been at a local tavern with a female acquaintance before leaving with a man who was then unidentified. Residents near the cemetery reported hearing a woman scream and plead at about 11 p.m., but the available account does not securely establish which night they heard her. That reported sound should not be mistaken for the separate, established 11 p.m. arrest time.⁠13⁠16

Investigators traced the suspect from Tembisa to Mohlabaneng village in Limpopo, in the Tzaneen area. With help from local police, they found him asleep in his room and arrested him without reported incident at approximately 11 p.m. on Saturday, September 26. Police announced the arrest on Sunday. FRANCE 24 correspondent Ununice Masson had understood it to have happened on Sunday; the police account places it on Saturday night.⁠13⁠90⁠1

Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane praised the team’s swift response. Her statement also said police would continue investigating the other women’s deaths. The arrested man has not been publicly identified in the established accounts, and his formal charge sheet, first court date and bail position remain unconfirmed. An arrest in connection with Nxumalo’s death is not a judicial finding that he killed her.⁠90⁠13

The figure ten counts women’s bodies reported found in Ekurhuleni since July 2026. It stood at eight by September 16, rose to nine after Jabulile Ntimba’s body was found in Villa Liza near Dawn Park on September 17, and reached ten with Nxumalo’s discovery. Reports describe six bodies found over ten days earlier in September, but do not establish a reliable discovery date for every woman. A running count is useful for showing the scale of the alarm. It cannot, by itself, show who killed anyone.⁠99⁠147⁠2

Police have noted similarities among some deaths, while saying they have no conclusive evidence that the same person or people were responsible for them all. Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni has said it is too early to make a definitive connection. A serial offender has neither been established nor ruled out. No published evidence links the man arrested in Limpopo to any of the other nine deaths.⁠2⁠38⁠152

Ntimba’s case shows why the investigations cannot be collapsed into one story. Fortunate Masilela and Tsakane Nester Msithini appeared in Boksburg Magistrates’ Court on September 21, facing allegations of premeditated murder and defeating the ends of justice. Their case was postponed to October 1 for a bail hearing; neither woman has been convicted. An earlier account described three arrests, but the man held for questioning was released without charge. He is not a third accused. Police have examined a possible relationship dispute as a lead in Ntimba’s death, not as an established motive for Nxumalo’s or an explanation for the wider count.⁠145⁠146⁠166⁠101

Police announced a R400,000 reward in mid-September, when eight deaths were under investigation. It sought information for the broader inquiry; it was not a new reward created solely for the cemetery case. Likewise, saying that suspects in most cases had not been found must not erase the charges already brought in Ntimba’s case. An arrest in the tenth case and charges in the ninth still leave those cases subject to court proceedings and the other deaths under investigation.⁠59⁠100⁠1

President Cyril Ramaphosa promised on September 24 to address the nation within a few days about measures against gender-based violence and the Ekurhuleni investigations. He spoke about violence against women at a men’s conference on September 27. By Sunday evening, however, the available reporting had not established a dedicated national address fulfilling his promise or a definite time for one.⁠27⁠29

The quickest answer police have produced is about one woman. The harder answer—whether any of these deaths belong to the same investigation in more than a counting sense—will require evidence, not the force of a frightening number.