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1,000 signatures reached
To: Enoch Godongwana, Minister of Finance & Firoz Cachalia, Acting Minister of Police
Stop Waiting for Bodies: Fund Permanent Serial Crime Task Team Now!
September 2026 saw women across South Africa yet again united in collective mourning following the death of nine women in Ekurhuleni [1]. Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) is a national emergency, and women are the biggest targets of serial predators, yet the police response is always underfunded [2] and too late. When people get angry, the police set up temporary teams. But these crimes aren’t temporary and once the teams are shut down, communities are left unprotected again. We need permanent, protected funding so these emergency task teams can never be shut down or stripped of their budget.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has the power to release emergency funds right away without waiting years for a new national budget [3].
We demand that Minister Enoch Godongwana and Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia do the following immediately:
- Establish a Permanent Serial Crime Task Team: Immediately set up a dedicated, specialised rapid-response task force specifically trained, equipped, and deployed to track, investigate, and stop serial rape and serial murder before more lives are lost.
- Invoke Section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) to fund a permanent serial investigation task team: The Minister of Finance must immediately exercise Section 16 emergency spending provisions under the Public Finance Management Act to release emergency funds for a permanent rapid-response task team, completely bypassing the multi-year budget wait.
- Ring-Fence the Task Team Budget: The Minister of Police must lock this funding into a protected, dedicated allotment within the SAPS budget so that police leadership cannot reallocate these resources to general administration, routine operational shortfalls, or VIP protection services.
- Guarantee Permanent Budgetary Allocation: Secure ring-fenced, long-term funding to ensure this specialised task force remains permanently operational across provinces rather than functioning as an ad-hoc, temporary team.
Why is this important?
The violent reality that has unfortunately become all too familiar has once again struck our country. In Ekurhuleni, nine women have been found dead since July, with the seventh and eighth victims discovered naked and in advanced states of decomposition along roadsides and open fields [1]. A woman’s body was lying decaying in a field before law enforcement even realised that she was missing. This is a horrific reflection of the complete lack of urgency that our protective mechanisms hold when it comes to women.
The government’s response has once again exposed a fatal flaw in our policing model as it is entirely reactive. Police leadership waited until four women were murdered in the same area before assembling a high-level task force, and only began cross-referencing station records after the body count continued to rise [1]. We are exhausted by a broken system that treats post-mortem arrests as a victory while doing nothing to keep women alive in the first place. Empty political sympathy and calls for action do not save lives. We do not want justice that only arrives in a mortuary. We need proactive, preemptive measures that identify serial predators and prevent deaths before they occur.
This reactive model is driven by severe underfunding of GBVF response. While GBVF was officially declared a national crisis, the state continues to cut overall spending on policing, leaving frontline officers stripped of basic resources [2]. The government's true priorities are clear in the numbers. Last year, R339 million was found for VIP services to protect just 3 666 politicians while this year only R43 million was allocated to the national body meant to coordinate South Africa’s response to gender-based violence and femicide, despite a staggering 50 511 reported GBVF cases [2]. Even when temporary task teams are formed during public outrage, once they are dissolved local police stations are left isolated and serial predators are free to strike again.
Our specific demands are non-negotiable and urgently necessary. The blueprint to stop serial offenders before they strike again already exists in the SAPS Policy on the Investigation and Management of Serial Rape and Serial Murder [4] and is backed by a 2026 study on serial crime linkage in Ekurhuleni [5]. But without ring-fenced funding, these frameworks remain empty promises on paper.
We are mourning both the sisters we have lost and the lives we are told we cannot live, at least not without fear or the terrifying question of Am I next?
If thousands of us join our voices today, we can build the public pressure required to force Treasury and SAPS leadership to move from reactive lip service to permanent, preventative action. Sign this petition now to demand permanent emergency funding for a serial crime rapid-response task force. It’s time that one more turns into no more.
References:
[1] IOL News: Ninth body found in Dawn Park, Ekurhuleni (https://iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/2026-09-17-breaking-ninth-body-found-in-dawn-park-ekurhuleni/)
[2] Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC): Years of Underfunding Have Undermined SA’s Fight Against GBVF (https://aidc.org.za/years-of-underfunding-have-undermined-sas-fight-against-gbvf/)
[3] National Treasury / South African Government: Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) Section 16 Emergency Expenditure Provisions (https://www.treasury.gov.za/legislation/pfma/act.pdf)
[4] Civilian Secretariat for Police Service: SAPS Policy on the Investigation and Management of Serial Rape and Serial Murder (https://www.policesecretariat.gov.za/sites/default/files/publications/policy_invs_man_rape.pdf)
[5] Springer Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology (2026): Serial Crime Linkage and Multidisciplinary Response in Ekurhuleni (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11896-026-09830-5)