KwaZulu-Natal police say two people have been taken in for questioning following the discovery of two more bodies in a sugarcane plantation at uMthwalume on the KwaZulu-Natal, south coast, this week.
Police spokesperson Thembeka Mbhele says the two people are aged 35 and 41. They have not been formally charged.
Since 2018, the bodies of six women have been found in uMthwalume. Six of the bodies have been discovered since November last year.
Minister Cele also mentioned the uMthwalume killings while briefing the media.
“In the South Coast, we have witnessed some gruesome murder up to 5 young women quite a mixed age of them i think they are between 16 and 38 but we are glad to say at least we have two people in our hands now that we are questioning seems to be very confident that at least one of them we’ll get the proper answers. We’ll be going there tomorrow to enhance the forces on the ground so that we stop this thing.”
Two people have been taken in for questioning:
Residents live in fear
Residents in uMthwalume on the KwaZulu-Natal, south coast, say they are living in fear following this week’s discovery of two more bodies in a sugarcane plantation.
Police on horseback and K9 members with their sniffer dogs have fine-combed the bushy banks of a stream running through a sugar cane field on a farm in uMthwalume for more bodies and clues. This comes after the bodies of five women were found in these bushes since the start of the lockdown.
The search was launched after the naked, decomposed bodies of two women were discovered about 300 meters apart earlier this week. At this stage, police say they are investigating the possibility that five of the deaths could be the work of a serial killer.
The recent discoveries of women’s bodies in sugarcane fields are not new in this area. In 2018, the body of Bajabulile Duma was also found in a sugarcane field. Akhona and Nelisiwe Gumede went missing in March and their bodies were found a month later in a sugarcane plantation.
The bodies of Nelisiwe Dube, Zama Chiliza and the recent unidentified half-naked body found on Wednesday bring to six the number of women who were dumped in sugar cane fields after being murdered.
Some of the bodies were badly decomposed, but it has been established that some victims were raped, while some were also missing body parts.
The seventh woman, killed in the area, is Mathuli Mthiyane, who went missing in November last year. Her body was found a week later where it was dumped under a bridge.
Mthiyane’s life partner was found guilty of her murder and is serving a jail sentence. No one has been arrested for the murder of the other six since 2018.
Nosipho Gumede’s grandmother Gladys Gumede and Akhona Gumede’s father Jeffery Phehlukwayo are calling on police to intensify their investigation and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.
“What did my daughter do to deserve such brutality? Our police are useless. Had it not been for hunters who found the bodies of my daughters. We would still be searching,” says Gumede.
“The pain of losing my daughter still haunts me. I wish I can leave this area of uMthwalume and go back to Port Elizabeth,” says Phehlukwayo.
Bajabulile Duma’s sister Lungile Mqadi says since 2018 her family have not received an update from the police on their investigation.
“We are still pained. We still don’t know what happened to the investigation because the last time police were here was when they came to report to us about my sister’s death. The recent deaths of women has reminded us of our ordeal. But there’s nothing done by police to find the perpetrator.”
One of the victims, Zama Chiliza, disappeared two weeks ago after collecting a social grant at a local shopping centre. Her body was found on Tuesday.
A local resident Danisile Mhlangu says they are living in fear.
“We are now scared to leave our houses. We are scared to even send our children to a tuckshop. We are now using foot path. We don’t know whether the serial killer is driving a car. We are scared to send our children to school. Some people are saying there is a serial killer, who is mutilating people’s bodies.”
Another resident Lindokuhle Nkomo believes poverty and unemployment are contributing towards the brutality directed at women.
“The fact that people are unemployed, people don’t have hope for the future they just live for now so they just do things not even thinking about the future. I think we have to mobilise people and get them connected. Try some new things that will bring hope especially the youth, because even boys now they are becoming aggressive because they have no hope. They just think that they believe that the system is against them.”
KwaZulu-Natal police say they are not ruling out the possibility that a serial killer could be responsible for at least five of the deaths.
In May Police Minister Bheki Cele visited the Qoloqolo area of uMthwalume after five people were killed in a period of two months.
Cele then assured residents that the police would spare no effort in tracking down criminals in the area.
Suspicions that a serial killer could be on the loose in KwaZulu-Natal:
