Skip to content
Kempton Watch Tip
Victims Get involved
Connect

Data

Statements Sources Disagreements

Posts

Remembering Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo

The glue of the family, her sister's pillar of strength, a neighbour's running partner, and the best driver in her friends' group

By Piet Speurder · · updated · 10 min read

Victim profile RememberingRhodesfieldrunnersVictim profile

The first in a series that tells the case from each victim's side. Tsontso Moselakgomo, 38, a runner and a mother from Rhodesfield, as her family, friends, running partners and the record describe her.

The funeral service for Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo in Phake, Mpumalanga, on 20 September 2026.

Photo: Phimani Baloyi / SABC News

Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo, smiling, in the photograph her family circulated while she was missing.
Photo: enca.com, as held in the kempton.watch record

Elizabeth Moselakgomo was 38, also known as Tsontso. She lived in Kempton Park with her eight-year-old daughter, worked, sang in a church choir, and ran. On the afternoon of Wednesday 9 September 2026 she went out for the loop through Rhodesfield she had run many times. She did not come back. Her body was found three days later in Rhodesfield, beside the R21.

Her death was the one that turned a run of separate police reports into a national story. The task team, the reward, the tribute runs and the President's statement all followed within a week of her being found. Officials have said throughout that the deaths across Ekurhuleni are not confirmed as linked, and this post keeps to that.

The runner

She started running in 2020, and, in the words of her friend and running partner Lesiba Molefe, "the bug quickly bit". Molefe, a neighbour who describes their friendship as brother and sister, told Daily Maverick that she ran "because she was a health freak" and that the weekly kilometres cleared her head. When he ran his first Comrades in 2024 she supported him, and he gave her his Comrades cap as a thank-you. She wore it at races.

Her passion for running came from her father, mourners at her funeral told Daily Maverick. By September she had recently finished the Wanderers 21 km, according to the Mail & Guardian, and Molefe believes she was building towards the Two Oceans ultra marathon the following year.

The running community claimed her as one of its own from three directions. The Mail & Guardian and Briefly describe her as a member of Team Vitality. IOL says she belonged to Run With Sole, the club founded by Tumi Sole, whose members helped circulate her missing-person details before her body was identified. Daily Maverick reports that the Diepkloof Athletics Club, to which she belonged, ran in their kit beside her coffin to the grave. The three accounts are not in conflict: runners join more than one club.

Her usual route, as Molefe described it to Daily Maverick, was a loop of about 6 km through the quiet streets of Rhodesfield, mostly flat and away from the main roads. The side streets that made it a comfortable run also pass open veld and overgrown bush. The municipality was clearing that bush the week after she was found.

Runners in black on a tribute run for the women killed in Ekurhuleni, September 2026.
Photo: Mail & Guardian

The family

Tsontso was born and raised in Mpumalanga, the Daily Sun reported, and that is where she was buried. At home in Kempton Park she was, in the words of her uncle Andries Mataila, "the glue of the family". Mataila, a police lieutenant colonel, acted as the family's spokesperson, Daily Maverick reported. (The Daily Sun spells his surname Matlaila.)

Her sister Dikeledi Moselakgomo told SABC News that after their mother, a single parent, died, Tsontso "helped us from zero" and "made sure that she fills the void". "Today, I'm burying my other pillar of strength in my life. I'm shattered," she said at the funeral. Her younger brother, Baki Morolo, delivered a eulogy written with their younger sister. "The body may be gone, but her spirit lives forever," the Daily Sun quoted him as saying.

Her father, named by Daily Maverick as Mr Bokaba, was at the graveside. Her uncle Stemmer Moselakgomo asked those who had rallied round not to drift away once the funeral was over. "We still need to get as much support because, as a family, we are still going to face some challenges," he told the Daily Sun. He also asked social media groups to stop circulating photographs of her and to stop naming people as suspects before the police had.

Her closest friend outside the family, Erna Mokwele, had known her since middle school; they lost touch after matric and found each other again when Tsontso was pregnant. Mokwele told the Daily Sun that their children knew Tsontso as "Schumacher", because she was the best driver in the group, and that the two families had grown into one. "Rest in peace, our Queen," she said.

Her daughter is the person who first noticed she was missing. When her mother did not come home from the run, the child alerted relatives, who reported her missing at Kempton Park police station and began searching with SAPS and Renegade Search and Rescue, News24 reported. At the funeral she read a poem she had written. We are not quoting it.

The funeral service for Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo in Phake, Mpumalanga, on 20 September 2026.
Photo: Phimani Baloyi / SABC News

Two further details come from single outlets and are given as such. Briefly reports that she was the centre manager at Festival Mall in Kempton Park, and that a Kempton Park primary school posted a tribute on 14 September: "She ran with strength, kindness and a beautiful smile. You will be deeply missed." The Daily Sun reports that she was a churchgoer and choir member.

Twelve days

Timeline, September 2026: run on the 9th; found on the 12th, task team set up; identified on the 14th; tribute runs, President's statement and R400 000 reward on the 15th; memorial on the 17th; funeral on the 20th.
Graphic: kempton.watch, from the sources cited in this post

Wednesday 9 September. Late afternoon, after a day that included collecting a parcel in Isando for Molefe, she went out for a run. Molefe had assumed she would skip it because of the hour. She did not return. Her daughter raised the alarm.

Saturday 12 September. A body was found in Rhodesfield. Daily Maverick places it off York Street, adjacent to the R21 and near the Southern Sun OR Tambo; the Mail & Guardian says behind a hotel. That evening SAPS warned women in the area, and the acting national police commissioner directed that a task team investigate the four deaths in and around Rhodesfield and determine whether there were links between them. Genavieve Beukes, speaking for the family, told News24 that they could not confirm it was her because of the injuries to her face, and would have to wait for the mortuary.

Monday 14 September. Her family identified her at the Germiston mortuary. "The past few days have been an emotional rollercoaster for us," Dawn Gounden, another family spokesperson, told News24. "We searched tirelessly for Elizabeth and circulated missing-person flyers in the hope that information would lead to her safe return." The acting national police commissioner, Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane, extended "our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Elizabeth" and directed a multidisciplinary team to the cases, TimesLIVE reported. Another woman's body was found in Olifantsfontein the same day.

Tuesday 15 September. Runners in black ran for her in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, and a club in Eswatini ran a 10 km in her honour, the Mail & Guardian reported. The President issued a statement that "no stone will be left unturned". Two more bodies were added to the investigation that day, and Dimpane announced a R400 000 police reward for information.

Wednesday 16 September. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi visited the family and offered five buses so that church members, family and the people she ran with could travel to the funeral, the Daily Sun reported.

Thursday 17 September. Memorial service at the Civic Centre in Kempton Park, then the journey home to Mpumalanga.

Sunday 20 September. Funeral at Phake, Mpumalanga. Social Development Minister Dina Pule and Sindisiwe Chikunga, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, attended. "She made sure all the other women who went through the same were found," Pule said, according to Daily Maverick. "Her family must appreciate that they have a hero." That weekend police announced arrests in the Dawn Park case, which is a different woman's.

What the record holds

Her row in our register is number 6, and the police count her as the sixth of twelve. Every value below carries a quoted sentence and a URL on her victim page.

Field Value Status Behind it
Date found 12 September 2026 Confirmed; disputed gov.za statement of 20 September, and 17 outlets. eNCA and SABC News print 13 September.
Where Rhodesfield, Kempton Park Confirmed Suburb centroid only. The location text is quoted as written.
Age 38 Confirmed; disputed 19 outlets. One Al Jazeera piece printed 20.
Identified 14 September, by family, Germiston mortuary Confirmed The Citizen, TimesLIVE, News24, SABC News.
Last seen 9 September Reported Briefly alone prints 10 September.
In the police count Yes, number 6 Official "Elizabeth Moselakgomo found in Kempton park on 12 September 2026", IMC statement, gov.za.
Arrests linked to her None in the record No outlet has reported an arrest for her death.
Sources 59 articles, 24 independent outlets The most of any row in the register.
Timeline of the 13 dated discoveries in the kempton.watch register, 15 July to 28 September 2026, by register number and suburb. Hers, #6, Rhodesfield, 12 September, is in teal. #13 is not in the police count.
Graphic: kempton.watch register, 5 October 2026

Daily Maverick's funeral report called her "the first of nine women whose bodies have been discovered in the broader Kempton Park area". She was not: three women had been found before her, between July and late August, and two more in the week before her. What is true is that hers was the first name the public learned in the September wave, and that the search for her was already under way, with flyers and a rescue organisation, when her body was found. That is why her case carried the story.

How the coverage moved

Between 12 and 30 September, 52 on-topic articles in our store named her. Twenty-two of them ran on two days, 14 and 15 September, the day she was identified and the day the tribute runs began. The chart counts articles in which her name appears, so it differs from the 59 sources behind her register row. The later rises in the chart, from 26 September, are the Tembisa and Springs discoveries; she is named in those pieces only as part of the list.

Bar chart of on-topic articles per day from 12 to 30 September 2026, with the articles that name her in teal: coverage of her peaked at 12 articles on 14 September and 10 on 15 September.
Graphic: kempton.watch, from its article store on 5 October 2026

Her register row cites The Citizen most often, ten articles including its Kempton Express pages, then News24 with six, and Daily Maverick and TimesLIVE with five each. The international coverage, the BBC, the Guardian and Al Jazeera, all featured her.

What is not known

No arrest has been reported in connection with her death. The police have said repeatedly that they have not established whether the Ekurhuleni deaths are linked. In at least two of the other cases, the people arrested were known to the women who died. Her sister told SABC News: "Sometimes we might search far, not knowing that the perpetrator is amongst us." Her uncle asked that nobody be named as a suspect until the police name one. We hold to that.

If you were in Rhodesfield on the evening of 9 September, or know anything at all about that run, pass it on. You can stay anonymous.

Sources

Photographs are the outlets' own and are credited beneath each. The graphics are ours, drawn from the register and the article store on 5 October 2026.

Written by the people who keep this record, under its rules: names only as published by officials or on-the-ground or wire outlets, suspects described and never named, locations at suburb precision. Corrections to hello@kempton.watch.