Police Minister Bheki Cele says 14 people have been reported missing in the uMthwalume area on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast where the bodies of five women were found in recent weeks.
Cele was addressing angry community members at the uMzumbe Magistrate’s Court where two suspects were due to appear. However, one of the suspects allegedly killed himself in the police cells.
The second suspect is reported to be in the hospital after sustaining injuries.
Cele says the Independent Police Investigative Directorate is investigating the death. He says the suspect had been positively linked to four of the murders.
“Well, I am told that around here up to about 14 people were reported missing. We will establish if those people were found, in what condition, are they dead, are they alive? We have had scope to investigate, going forward we did say we had a very strong case with one person.
“Unfortunately early this morning we received the information that the guy had committed suicide. For that, we have put the IPID to check so it will be speculation whatever we say about his suicide at the moment. We will wait for the report from IPID, as you know that the law says if they die in the hands of the police or in the police cells IPID must investigate,” Cele explains.
In the video below, Minister Bheki Cele addresses uMzumbe community members:
uMthwalume community members are calling for the arrests of other suspects who could be involved in the murders of several women in the area.
Their bodies were discovered between April and August this year in a nearby sugarcane plantation. A leader of a women’s organisation, Hlengiwe Gambushe, says the community is very angry.
“We are here in court to say no bail to the killers of our children and our daughters in uMthwane area. We are women coming from various political parties, united in one voice to say no bail. And we want to see other killers being arrested as well. We have since this morning learnt that one of the suspects has allegedly committed suicide this morning, that has angered us as the community, the way we are so angry we are tempted to take the law into our own hands.”
Local traditional leader Bhekani Mngoma says they will not find closure with the latest twist in the murder cases.
“We as the community we are disappointed to find out that the suspect has died while in police custody, this showed us we won’t find any justice in the killing of these women, we are still puzzled how can a person kill himself while in police custody we were hoping that the suspect is in the safe hands another problem we have why the suspect that was positively linked to some cases is the one who is now dead we are left with a suspect which police has insufficient evidence against him to us that means these killers are somehow being protected by the fact that they might be killed while in police custody, as the community leaders we want to be given the statements the dead suspect made to police, we want those who are mentioned in his statement to be arrested, it that does not happen we will not find closure.”
In the video below, residents say they fear for their safety:
