MEC MAILE MOURNS THE TRAGIC DEATH OF ELIZABETH MOSELAKGOMO AND CALLS FOR COLLECTIVE ACTION AGAINST FEMICIDE

MEC for Education, Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Lebogang Maile, has expressed his profound grief following confirmation of the death of 38-year-old Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, whose body was positively identified by her family at the Germiston mortuary.

Moselakgomo disappeared after leaving her home in Rhodesfield, Kempton Park, for a routine run. Her disappearance mobilised her family, community members and law enforcement agencies in a desperate search to bring her home safely. Tragically, that hope has now been extinguished. ⁠

“This is devastating. Elizabeth went out to exercise, something millions of people should be able to do without fear, and she did not return home. A woman should be able to walk, run, work, study, travel and simply exist in her own community without having to calculate the possibility that she may be attacked or killed,” said MEC Maile.

“What makes this tragedy even more painful is that a young child has lost her mother. An eight-year-old girl was reportedly the first to realise that her mother had not returned home and alerted family members. No child should have to endure such an experience. We extend our deepest condolences to Elizabeth’s daughter, her family, friends and everyone who knew and loved her.” ⁠

MEC Maile maintains that the killing of women cannot become another statistic that society briefly mourns before moving on.

“We must call this crisis by its name. The continued violence against women and the prevalence of femicide represent a profound moral and social crisis. Women cannot continue to live as prisoners of fear in their own communities. We cannot accept a society in which women have to change how they dress, where they walk, when they exercise or how they travel simply because there are men prepared to harm them.”

The tragedy comes amid serious concern over the discovery of several bodies of women in and around the Kempton Park area. The South African Police Service has established a multidisciplinary investigation involving detectives and specialised policing resources to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths and determine whether any of the cases are connected. Police have cautioned that no conclusion should yet be drawn that the cases are linked or involve a single perpetrator. ⁠

“This situation requires the full attention of our law-enforcement agencies. Those responsible for murdering women must be identified and brought before the criminal justice system. At the same time, we must allow the South African Police Service to conduct an evidence-based investigation and avoid speculation that could compromise its work.”

MEC Maile highlighted that fighting gender-based violence and femicide cannot be left to the police, government or women’s organisations alone.

“Protecting women is a collective societal responsibility. Government has responsibilities. Law enforcement has responsibilities. Families, schools, communities, religious institutions, civil society, workplaces and men in particular have responsibilities. We must build communities in which violence against women is confronted rather than concealed, in which warning signs are acted upon and in which perpetrators are not protected by silence.”

MEC Maile further highlighted the importance of confronting the attitudes that enable violence against women from an early age.

“As the education sector, we also have an enormous responsibility. Schools do not exist outside society; they are a microcosm of society. The values children encounter in their homes, communities and schools eventually shape the adults they become. We therefore have to teach our boys that masculinity can never be measured by domination, intimidation or violence, and teach all our children about dignity, equality, consent, respect and the sanctity of human life.”

“This is precisely why we maintain that it takes a village to raise a child. But that village must also be a safe village. It cannot raise children successfully while women are being hunted, assaulted and killed. Every child deserves to grow up seeing women treated with dignity and knowing that violence is neither normal nor acceptable.”

MEC Maile called upon men to assume greater responsibility in confronting gender-based violence within their own social circles.

“The fight against femicide cannot be a conversation that takes place only among women. Men must speak to other men. Men must challenge misogyny, threats, harassment, abuse and violent behaviour when they encounter it. Silence in the presence of abuse creates space for abuse to continue.”

“We cannot commemorate women after they have been killed and then return to business as usual. Our collective responsibility is to build a society in which they live. Elizabeth should have returned home from her run. She should have returned to her daughter and her family. That is the ordinary freedom every woman in Gauteng and South Africa deserves.”

MEC Maile called on anyone who may have information relevant to the investigation to cooperate fully with the South African Police Service.

“On behalf of the Gauteng Provincial Government, we convey our heartfelt condolences to Elizabeth’s daughter, family, friends and loved ones. We also extend our sympathies to every family mourning a woman whose life has been taken through violence.

“May Elizabeth ‘Tsontso’ Moselakgomo rest in peace. May her daughter and family find strength during this extraordinarily difficult period. And may her death strengthen our collective determination to build communities where women and children are protected, respected and free from violence.”