DA Slams SAPS Advice Telling Ekurhuleni Women to ‘Take Precautions’ Amid Spate of Kempton Park Murders
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has firmly rejected communication from the South African Police Service (SAPS) advising women in Ekurhuleni to “take precautions,” calling the approach a deflection of corporate responsibility amidst a terrifying string of local murders.
In an immediate media release on Monday, Khathutshelo Rasilingwane, the DA Mayoral Candidate for Ekurhuleni, expressed deep concern over the safety crisis gripping the metro.
The statement follows a briefing today by a SAPS spokesperson who confirmed “similarities” between the recent murders, heightening community alarm and pointing toward a potentially systemic threat.
The crisis has hit critically close to home for Rasilingwane, who hails from Olifantsfontein—the area where the latest victim’s body was discovered.
Over the last two months, five women have lost their lives in the Kempton Park area under suspicious and seemingly linked circumstances.
Panic has heightened further following reports that another local woman remains missing after she failed to return from a routine run last week.
While Rasilingwane acknowledged that the police’s newly proposed multidisciplinary task team is a step in the right direction, she argued that structural plans mean very little without active enforcement assets.
“To keep residents safe, it must be coupled with an increase in on-the-ground policing resources,” Rasilingwane stated. “Quite simply, Ekurhuleni needs police boots on the ground now.”
The DA is demanding that SAPS immediately deploy comprehensive resources to Kempton Park, scaling up visible policing (vis-pol) alongside targeted, high-frequency patrols to deter offenders and restore public peace of mind.
The core of the opposition party’s pushback rests on correcting what they view as a dangerous shift in accountability.
Rasilingwane emphasized that the institutional burden of personal safety should never be offloaded onto potential victims.
“Women in Kempton Park have the right to walk, run, and live their lives without living in fear,” said Rasilingwane. “
The burden of keeping women safe cannot be placed on women themselves. SAPS must do its job, and it must do so now.”
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