Liesl Laurie-Mthombeni’s 2020 Post Comes Back To Haunt Mzansi Amid Kempton Park Women’s Deaths

Liesl Laurie-Mthombeni has revisited a powerful post she shared in October 2020 about the safety of women in South Africa, writing that the situation has only become worse in the years since.

The former Miss South Africa reshared the post on Instagram as South Africans grapple with renewed fear and anger following the discovery of eight women’s bodies in Ekurhuleni over a period of less than two months.

Police have launched a specialised investigation and announced a R400,000 reward for information that could assist in identifying and arresting those responsible.

“This was a post from October 2020 and it’s only gotten worse!” Liesl wrote.

Her decision to bring the message back into the spotlight comes as the country continues to confront painful questions around violence against women, safety and accountability.

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She reflected on the devastating reality of another woman becoming a name on an already “agonisingly long list” of victims.

“Another body is discovered. Another name is added to an agonisingly long list and another home is broken,” she wrote.

Liesl Laurie-Mthombeni’s message hits differently amid Kempton Park deaths

Liesl’s original post was inspired by her own experience of harassment and the frustration she felt over the constant warnings women receive about how to protect themselves.

She recalled being harassed in a parking lot for the third time in one week.

According to her 2020 post, a man approached her and made advances towards her. When she did not entertain him, she said he told her to “f*ck off”.

The encounter prompted Liesl to question why women are so often expected to change their behaviour in order to avoid harassment or violence.

She asked why women should constantly have to think about how they walk, dress, travel or conduct themselves simply because they want to feel safe.

Years later, those words have resurfaced against the backdrop of the Ekurhuleni investigation, with police confirming that bodies have been discovered in areas including Kempton Park, Olifantsfontein and KwaThema. Authorities have stressed that investigations are ongoing and have cautioned against prematurely assuming that all the deaths are connected.

Eight women found dead as police offer R400,000 reward

In her resurfaced post, Liesl also expressed frustration at repeatedly hearing women being told to “be cautious” whenever another violent incident is reported.

“As news breaks of more lives taken across SA and we are once again told to ‘be cautious,’ the weight of this grief turns into outrage,” she wrote.

Her argument was that women should not have to sacrifice their freedom or live in fear simply to protect themselves.

“Women in South Africa should not have to pay for their right to walk, run, live, and breathe freely with their lives,” she said.

She also called for greater accountability for perpetrators of violence against women.

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“Stop telling women to shrink themselves to survive. Start holding the men who kill accountable,” Liesl wrote.

Her post ended with a declaration that remains particularly poignant as investigators work to identify the women whose bodies have been discovered and determine the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

“We deserve safety, we deserve justice and above all, we deserve to live.”

Police have since offered R400,000 for information that could lead to arrests in the Ekurhuleni cases. A high-level multidisciplinary team has also been established, while police intelligence structures have been brought in to support the investigation.

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Only two of the eight victims had been identified at the time of the latest reports, with police appealing to families of missing women to come forward with information that could assist investigators.

Liesl's message has once again opened a conversation about whether the burden of staying safe should continue to fall so heavily on women — or whether greater attention must be placed on preventing violence, investigating killings and holding those responsible accountable.