Rekindling fear in Ekurhuleni: The deaths of eight women reignite a national crisis - IOL

As South Africa grapples with the brutal reality of violence against women, this harrowing tale of loss reveals a crucial need for action. Eight families are left seeking justice as the nation confronts its relationship with patriarchal violence. The time for change is now.

Eight women's bodies. Eight families waiting for answers. Eight lives taken in circumstances that have reopened one of South Africa's deepest wounds.

In Ekurhuleni, women are afraid to walk, run, travel or simply move through public space. Across the country, mothers are calling daughters more often. Partners are checking whether loved ones arrived safely. Running groups are changing routes. Social media is filled with grief, anger, fear, warnings and speculation.

We must begin with the women, not the noise around their deaths.

We must say the names we know and honour every life, including those whose names remain unknown. Elizabeth "Tsontso" Moselakgomo went out for a run and did not return home. She was a mother, a professional, a church member, a runner, and a human being with dreams, responsibilities and people who loved her.

We must also respect the truth. Police are investigating eight deaths across Ekurhuleni. They have not established that one person committed all these crimes, or that every case is connected. Justice requires urgency, but it also requires facts. Rumour cannot become evidence. Social media cannot become a courtroom.

Our anger is understandable. Anger tells us that something sacred has been violated. It says that another life cannot be reduced to another statistic. It can awaken conscience and move people to act. But anger must be given direction. It must become protection, justice and change. If it remains only rage, blame and hatred, it consumes energy without changing the conditions that produced the violence.

Fear is also real. We should never shame women for feeling afraid. Yet fear cannot become our permanent home. A nation cannot tell half its people to disappear from the streets, stop exercising, change their clothes, shorten their journeys, and organise their lives around the violence of men.

Women must be safe, but safety is not enough. Women must be free.

Free to run at sunrise. Free to return from work after dark. Free to say no. Free to leave a relationship. Free to report abuse and be believed. Free to occupy streets, parks, taxis, workplaces, campuses and homes without constantly calculating the likelihood of harm.

This is not a women's problem. It is a national test of our character, our institutions and our humanity.

Patriarchy survives by making women responsible for managing male violence. It asks what she wore, why she walked alone, why she trusted him, why she stayed, why she left, or why she spoke. We must move the question. Why did he harm her? Who ignored the warning signs? Which institution failed? What must men do differently?

Fathers must teach boys that love is not ownership. Brothers must challenge the friend who humiliates women. Colleagues must stop laughing when harassment is disguised as humour. Faith leaders must confront abuse inside homes and institutions, not protect reputations. Political leaders must stop turning women's suffering into speeches before returning to ordinary business.

Men cannot define goodness only by saying, "I do not abuse women." The test is whether we interrupt abuse, challenge misogyny, support survivors, report danger and change the conditions that allow violence to grow.

The dedicated police team must investigate every case thoroughly, communicate responsibly and keep families informed. Evidence must be protected. Leads must be followed. Those responsible must be arrested, prosecuted and sentenced through due process. Women who report threats, stalking, assault or missing relatives must never be dismissed at a police counter.

Municipalities must conduct immediate safety audits with women — walking the routes women use, inspecting lighting, overgrown spaces, abandoned buildings, transport interchanges, cameras and emergency access. They must fix what creates danger, and publish the work, the responsible officials and the deadlines. Safety cannot depend on media attention arriving after a life has been lost.

Every ward should establish a practical women's safety compact involving community organisations, police, municipal officials, schools, clinics, transport operators, faith communities, runners and businesses. It must identify hotspots, organise rapid communication, support survivors and track whether reported problems are resolved. It must be working machinery, not another meeting.

Running groups, escorts and check-in systems may help now, but they are emergency measures. They cannot become the permanent price women pay for public life.

Women's agency must remain central. Speaking out is power. Saying no is power. Reporting is power. Organising is power. Supporting another woman is power. But we must never confuse agency with responsibility for preventing violence against women. The responsibility belongs to the perpetrator. The duty to build safety belongs to all of us.

We must also guard our national conversation. Share verified information, not gruesome images. Do not name suspects without evidence. Do not turn murdered women into content. Do not attack those asking difficult questions. Social media can mobilise help, but it can also multiply fear, hatred and misinformation.

We have courageous women who organise communities, comfort families, lead institutions and refuse silence. We have men willing to change and to challenge other men. We have neighbours searching together, investigators following evidence, activists demanding accountability, and families who keep calling us back to our humanity.

Collective healing does not mean forgetting. Forgiveness cannot be demanded from grieving families. Peace is not silence. Love is not softness toward wrongdoing. There can be no healing without truth, no peace without safety, and no reconciliation without justice.

Yet justice alone will not remove the beliefs that produce violence. We need a deeper change in how we raise boys, understand power, resolve conflict and value life. Force is not strength. Control is not love. Violence does not create respect. It creates trauma, and untreated trauma travels between generations.

Let grief deepen our humanity. Let anger sharpen our courage. Let courage organise action. Let action create safer streets, responsive institutions, responsible men and free women.

We honour these women when we refuse numbness, refuse hatred and refuse inaction. We honour them when every institution performs its duty and every community protects life.