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uMthwalume community speaks a year after sugercane killings

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It’s been a year since the bodies of seven women were found dumped in a forest in a sugarcane field in uMthwalume on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast. One more body that is yet to be identified was also found. A man who is believed to have been behind these killings, Mafutha Khomo committed suicide in police cells.

The small town of uMthwalume near Hibberdene on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast came under the spotlight last year after the bodies of seven badly decomposed women were found dumped in the bushes on a sugarcane farm. The SABC also spoke to other families still grieving the loss of their female relatives whose bodies were discovered dumped in a similar fashion in the same area. Bajabulile Duma’s body was found in 2016, Andile Cele in 2018 and Zodwa Cele in 2019.

The alleged mastermind behind these killings Mafutha Khomo committed suicide last year in police custody, just hours before he was to point out several more crime scenes to police. A year later after what some community members believed was serial killings, calm has been restored.

Some residents have shared their views.

“We can see the difference now, there is nobody that has been found lately, since the authorities tried to intervene from last year, it’s quiet. We are happy that now we are able to walk freely on the road without fear.”

There are however other community members who maintain that Khomo did not commit these crimes by himself and that he had accomplices who they say, are still in the community.

“We are not feeling safe, we are still living in fear, we did not get answers on who exactly was doing this, it’s scary even when you are walking on the road.”

Hlengiwe Gambushe is a gender activist and a member of the uMthwalume Women’s Organisation. She says there are still too many unanswered questions.

“The killings have stopped following a number of incidents that were reported, we are living in fear, as women we are scared of unfamiliar faces and unfamiliar vehicles. We are still traumatized. We are also not happy that some of the promises that were made have not been fulfilled. We were promised that there will be police vehicles patrolling in the area, but that is not happening. The service is still poor at the Hibberdene police station. We have not received updates on the bodies that were not identified.  I think those bodies are still at the mortuary.”

Delays in DNA test results leave family frustrated

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of uMthwalume at Qoloqolo, the family of 28-year-old Sizakele Myende remains without answers after she disappeared in July last year. They believe that the remaining unidentified body from the sugarcane fields could belong to her. Family member Ndukuzakhe Myende says they need Sizakele’s remains to find closure.

“We don’t know why we are not getting her body. We went to the mortuary in Port Shepstone and we suspect that the body that was at the Mortuary is hers, however, there was another family that was claiming the same body. We identified her with her feet, we also know the clothes that she was wearing but the police told us to wait for DNA results. We have been waiting for too long.”

The ongoing backlog at the Forensic Science laboratories of the South African Police Services continues to hamper the cries from families.

At a parliamentary debate on DNA testing backlog in May this year, Police Minister Bheki Cele said that the backlog in KwaZulu-Natal was at eighty-one percent.

VIDEO | uMthwalume Killings| Another body found:

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