Hill-Lewis links Ekurhuleni killings to DA’s campaign to empower ‘trustworthy’ metro cops

The Democratic Alliance has put crime and the collapse of policing at the centre of its campaign to take control of Ekurhuleni, promising to overhaul the metro police, increase visibility in crime hotspots and subject senior officers to lifestyle audits.

The party’s campaign comes as Ekurhuleni reels from the discovery of nine women’s bodies in less than two months, prompting an intensified police investigation and growing concern over the safety of women in the metro.

The ninth body, that of Jabulile Ntimba, was found in Dawn Park on 17 September, with police saying a multidisciplinary team had been assembled to investigate the cases, and two suspects appearing in court in connection with the case on Monday, 21 September.

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Against that backdrop, the DA has offered a R500,000 reward for information leading to the successful prosecution of those responsible for the deaths, an intervention that came days after police announced their own R400,000 reward for information that could lead to arrests in the cases.

DA leader and Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis defended the party’s decision amid questions over whether a political party should be offering its own reward during an active police investigation and an election campaign, saying large rewards could help investigators obtain information from within criminal networks.

Hill-Lewis engaged with residents of Ekurhuleni in Tsakane on Friday, where he and the party’s Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate, Khathutshelo Rasilingwane, sought to position the DA as the alternative to what they described as a reactive and failing local government ahead of the 4 November local government elections.

Calls to increase award

The police have made it clear that the two rewards cannot simply be combined. Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili said the DA’s proposed reward could not be added to the official police reward, citing protocols governing contributions to the police and saying that the SAPS could not become involved in political matters.

Mosikili suggested the DA should have rather partnered with the police and collaborated to offer the increased reward.

Asked whether critics might view the DA’s R500,000 announcement as political grandstanding, Hill-Lewis rejected the suggestion.

“I honestly couldn’t care less what the critics say,” he told Daily Maverick.

“The point is that Khathu [Rasilingwane] is trying to help. She’s trying to show the kind of leadership she would show as mayor of Ekurhuleni,” he said.

“If other political parties, critics, opponents, whoever, don’t like that we are being proactive and are on the front foot on the issue of crime, that’s entirely their own concern. We’ve got a job to do here, and that’s to fix Ekurhuleni.”

Hill-Lewis explained that the party had previously used rewards as a crime-fighting tactic in Cape Town, including a R1-million reward after the murder of a City of Cape Town employee at a Delft housing development, which he said helped lead to arrests and convictions.

He argued that substantial rewards could encourage people inside criminal organisations to provide information.

“And so that is a very effective tactic and if we can be a part of helping to catch the people responsible, then why not?” he said.

He also called on businesses and other people with the means to contribute to the reward.

“Let’s make it the biggest reward our country’s ever seen so we can catch these guys that have done this and put them in prison, get them convicted,” he said.

‘We need to clean up the EMPD’

For the DA, however, the killings are also being used to make a broader argument about policing powers and the state of the EMPD.

Hill-Lewis said the DA wanted greater policing capacity at local level, arguing that metro police departments with the necessary competence and integrity should be able to assist SAPS with investigations.

The DA has long campaigned for certain policing powers to be devolved to metro police in Cape Town. Hill-Lewis has committed to establishing a metro detective branch in the city, whether the national government permits it or not.

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He stopped short of backing the devolution of investigative powers to the current EMPD, which he described as “deeply corrupt” and “deeply compromised”.

Hill-Lewis said Ekurhuleni was “the centre of the mafia state” and described the EMPD as “the most corrupt of all police forces”. He also referred to allegations involving the metro police that have emerged at the Madlanga Commission.

His argument also was that SAPS detectives were often carrying enormous caseloads.

“These cases land on the desk of a detective. That detective possibly has 300, even 400 other cases that he or she is investigating,” Hill-Lewis said.

He argued that additional investigative capacity could help relieve that pressure. Hill-Lewis said the DA’s position was not about taking policing powers away from SAPS, but about providing additional capacity.

“If we could have competent, trustworthy metro police departments helping in those investigations, you would get better public outcomes, you would get more convictions,” he said.

EMPD ‘clean-up’

The party’s proposed changes extend beyond investigations. When addressing Tsakane residents, he explained that a DA government in Ekurhuleni would first “clean up and professionalise” the EMPD, including requiring every senior officer to undergo a lifestyle audit.

“If they won’t do it, they will be out,” Hill-Lewis said.

The party would also identify crime hotspots and deploy officers accordingly, improve street lighting, make public transport stations, parks and pedestrian routes safer, and make greater use of CCTV and other technology.

A third pillar would be measuring whether those interventions actually work. Hill-Lewis said residents should be able to see whether more officers were on the streets, whether broken streetlights in high-risk areas were being repaired faster and whether municipal cameras were operational.

“The government should be able to show you, month by month, whether things are getting better,” he said.

‘We want action, not advice’

Rasilingwane, meanwhile, said the response from communities had been shaped by fear and frustration.

She told Daily Maverick that residents were “truly devastated” by the deaths and questioned the lack of police visibility in affected communities.

Rasilingwane pointed to what she said was a significant number of EMPD vehicles sitting in workshops, saying the lack of operational vehicles had contributed to inadequate visibility.

She also criticised the focus on advice to women to change their behaviour while they waited for authorities to deal with the threat.

Women, she said, had been told to avoid jogging and walking alone, to be cautious about travelling and to share their locations.

“We want action,” she said.

Hill-Lewis also questioned the government’s response in Kempton Park, where authorities had promised a lockdown following the discovery of another woman’s body.

“The government promised a lockdown of Kempton Park,” he said.

The lockdown was announced by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. Hill-Lewis said the DA had not seen evidence of the promised operation on the ground, based on what Rasilingwane, councillors and party activists had observed during their movements in the area.

“There’s no lockdown in Kempton Park,” he said, adding that the DA would “go and look for it ourselves”.

On Monday, 21 September 2026, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said the Ekurhuleni lockdown would begin on Tuesday.

From Campbell to a fresh DA bid

The DA is seeking to return to the Ekurhuleni mayoral office after its 2021 electoral breakthrough.

In the 2021 local government elections, the ANC remained the largest party in Ekurhuleni with 38.19% of the vote, followed by the DA on 28.72% and the EFF on 13.57%. No party won an outright majority.

The DA nevertheless secured the mayoralty when Tania Campbell was elected executive mayor in November 2021 with 116 votes against ANC candidate Mzwandile Masina’s 105 in the 224-seat council.

Campbell’s mayoral tenure ultimately ended in March 2023, when an ANC and EFF coalition successfully passed a motion of no confidence to remove her from office for a second time.

The DA is now attempting to make another push for control of the metro, with Rasilingwane arguing that the party is receiving a stronger reception in townships and communities where it had historically struggled.

She said the campaign had been well received in places including Thembisa, Tsakane, Daveyton and Kempton Park.

Rasilingwane also said the party was focusing on DA supporters who did not vote in 2021, arguing that mobilising those voters alongside growth in other areas could significantly change the party’s position in the city.

She said the party was “preparing to ensure that we don’t disappoint them when we get into government”. DM