SET ALIGHT and left for dead.
That is the gruesome scene that confronted 78-year-old Nontsikelelo Ndlebe’s daughters who had the harrowing responsibility of identifying their mother’s body after she was murdered.
Nondumiso and Nosisa don’t live with their mother, but at 9am on Saturday they had plans to fetch her to fix an issue with water in her house in Kusile Street, Khayelitsha.
“Upon arrival we found the kitchen door, which we never used, broken. I felt cold and knew that something was wrong, I cried out and the neighbours came out,” said the distraught Nondumiso.
Nodumiso Ndlebe discovered her mother Nontsikelelo Ndlebe’s burnt and naked body burned in her room, in her Khayelitsha home. Photo: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency(ANA)
“Our neighbour went inside first and we followed behind her, she went straight where my mother’s burnt body was. The room was dark due to smoke, and the smell was horrible. We suddenly heard the neighbour crying and she ran out and we followed her.”
She said the neighbour told them to call local men because what she saw was more than any woman could handle.
The men arrived and also told them not to go into the room because of the gruesome scene.
“We waited for the police and then they asked us to go in and see our mother; I had to go and see her for myself. It’s an image that will stick with me for the rest of my life,” she said.
“The thought that my mother might have been raped before being burnt is heartbreaking.”
Nodumiso Ndlebe discovered her mother Nontsikelelo Ndlebe’s burnt and naked body burned in her room, in her Khayelitsha home. Photo: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency(ANA)
What pained her the most is that her mother did not fall sick or die of natural causes, but someone decided to kill her, and she would never come to terms with that, she said.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said: “Lingelethu West police are investigating a murder case after the body of a woman was found by her daughter in her residence in Kusile Street, at about 11.15am. Circumstances surrounding her death are under investigation. A post-mortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death.”
The discovery comes as Khayelitsha residents were reeling in shock after the murder of 18-year-old Sinovuyo Magatya. Her lifeless body was found under a bed in the shack of a man known to her family.
Makholwa Ngumla, 30, has since been charged with Magatya’s murder and appeared briefly in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court yesterday. He is expected to return on June 24.
Magatya had been missing for four days before the police found her wig with bloodstains on it under Ngumla’s bed. Her family believes she was also strangled.
Her uncle Wele Dyongo said they were relieved that the suspect had been arrested and hoped that there would not be any delays in the case.
“At least there is progress and there has been an arrest. We want him to remain behind bars. I am still heartbroken as I trusted him. We will continue fighting until we as a family get justice,” he said.
The level of femicide in Khayelitsha was very high, said advocacy group Ilitha Labantu.
Spokesperson Siyabulela Monakali said:
“In the past weekend alone there have been three cases of femicide in Khayelitsha.
“We are deeply concerned about the spike in incidents of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) plaguing the townships of the Western Cape, and appeal to our police to do everything within their power to apprehend these suspects, and for our justice system to impose harsher sentences on perpetrators of GBVF. ”
Policing expert Eldred de Klerk said that the incidents were cause for concern.
“This means that our communities and all stakeholders need to be brought together into the equation so that there can be trust and co-operation to eradicate this scourge.”
