South Africa orders safety audits after 11 women found dead

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered women's safety audits in municipalities after the bodies of 11 women were found dumped in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, since mid-July.

Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that a national-level emergency response was investigating the killings, which have caused public alarm over gender-based violence. Four people were in police custody in connection with the Ekurhuleni murders.

The latest body was found on Sunday in open veld. A day earlier, a semi-naked woman's body was found near a cemetery in the same municipality. Many of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, and some were stripped of their clothes and showed signs of sexual assault.

Ramaphosa said police had not found evidence establishing that the killings were carried out by a single perpetrator.

He ordered municipalities to identify and fix high-risk areas, including broken streetlights, overgrown public spaces, abandoned buildings, unsafe transport routes and poorly secured parks. He also announced measures to reduce alcohol-related violence.

Police and prosecutors have been instructed to reopen unresolved cases involving women and children and to fast-track existing gender-based violence and femicide cases.