Kempton Park killings: Police reveal possible love triangle behind ninth murder

Police investigating the death of Jabulile Ntimba say her murder may have stemmed from a troubled relationship.

The woman found half-naked with her throat slit in a Boksburg field, feared to be the ninth woman killed in Ekurhuleni since July, may have been caught in a deadly love triangle, police said.

A man and two women were due to appear in the Boksburg Magistrate's Court on Monday over the murder of Jabulile Ntimba, about 30.

Her body was found in Dawn Park last week.

Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili said the team investigating Ntimba's death was picking up signs that her murder stemmed from a rocky relationship.

"In Jabulile Ntimba's case, it appears to be an indication of a murder that stemmed from a relationship," Mosikili told a media briefing on Monday.

"This describes the possible love triangle. That is what the team is picking up.

"However, we will not divulge further information in this regard at this stage because we do not want to compromise the investigation."

Mosikili said police did not yet know whether the killings were connected, and had not ruled out a serial killer.

"We are still connecting the dots," she said.

"We are still trying to see the cases that are linked together, and we are not discounting the possibility of this."

She said the number of women found dead had risen to 10 after a body was found in Soweto on Sunday night.

"We owe this to the families of the victims, now standing at 10 with the recent discovery in Soweto, that they do get justice," Mosikili said.

"We owe it to the women in this country that there is justice at the end of the day."

She said investigators would not rush the cases to court.

"We don't want to go to court for the purpose of just arresting and going to court," Mosikili said.

"We want to make sure that the investigation team does thorough work and does thorough analysis."

She appealed to families to help identify the woman found in Olifantsfontein on September 7, the only body in the Ekurhuleni cases still without a name, and said the police reward of R400,000 still stood.

Ntimba was found partially clothed and wrapped in a sheet in an open area on Lama Street in Villa Lisa, Dawn Park, on September 17 with a fatal throat injury, police said.

Acting Gauteng police commissioner Major General Fred Kekana said last week that preliminary information showed she had been killed elsewhere and her body dumped in Dawn Park.

Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said the Soweto woman, believed to be in her twenties, was found wrapped in a duvet in a dam at Moroka at 5pm on Sunday.

Police opened an inquest and had not said whether her death was linked to the Ekurhuleni killings.

The first of the Ekurhuleni women, Busisiwe Mahlangu, was found in Kempton Park on July 15.

Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia said on Sunday that crime intelligence head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo and KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi had been brought in to help.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stop on 08600-10111 or use the MySapsApp.