Horror murder case revived

Thomokazi Zazayokwe was first beaten before boiling water was poured over her and she was repeatedly stabbed in the buttocks.

Then she was locked in a shack for five days. By the time neighbours rescued her, her wounds were infected and were caked in flies, and she was demented.

But when Zazayokwe, 23, died in Cape Town's Somerset Hospital four months later, the authorities didn't seem to notice.

Only recently did the police officers who were supposed to have investigated her case learn that she was buried in the Eastern Cape some time late last year.

The case was subsequently withdrawn and the man who allegedly brutalised her last August is free.

Prosecutors say that Zazayokwe's case is one of many thrown out of court before justice is served.

Now, thanks to a Cape Town novelist and a furious state prosecutor, Zazayokwe's murder is back in the spotlight.

Prosecutor Joseph Lorenzo was so incensed by the dismal police docket that landed on his desk that he instructed police to reinvestigate her death.

Author Lauren Beukes, who knows the family well, was so enraged that she wrote about Zazayokwe's death on her literary blog, prompting outrage from fellow literary figures.

Thanks to them, Zazayokwe's mother might learn what happened to her daughter in a shack in the Cape Town township of Gugulethu, allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend.

At the time it was reported that Zazayokwe was only rescued when her neighbours heard moaning and "smelled something funny" from behind her locked door, which they broke down.

This week Lorenzo said the main suspect - who is known to the community and whose name is known to The Times - might still be charged with murder if new evidence comes to light.

For now, the case is withdrawn because police failed to link her death with the assault on her four months before. The death certificate issued by Somerset Hospital says she died of "natural causes".

The horrific case may well have slipped beneath the radar had it not been for Beukes. After trying and failing to intervene on the family's behalf, she took the matter on-line and spurred authorities into action.

"The worst is that I suspect this kind of thing happens every day, where cases slip through the cracks. Victims don't know their rights, the police are overworked or careless," Beukes said yesterday.

"[Thomokazi] was incredibly bright. Her mother worked for my family and I was involved in her life," she said.

"It is terribly frustrating to think that somebody can get away with this."

Beukes said Zazayokwe's relatives were still too traumatised to talk about her attack and death.

But Lorenzo said there was still time as there was a "prescription period" of 20 years for murder cases, meaning police had plenty of time to follow up.

"At this stage I've written a lot of queries for the police to follow - including the possibility of exhuming the body," he said.

Yesterday, The Times was unable to obtain comment from the Gugulethu police station where the case was reported.

But officials in the Western Cape department of community safety said that, if required, the case would be carefully reviewed.

Policeman in family shooting

A policeman from Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, allegedly shot his wife dead and shot her pregnant sister nine times before turning the gun on himself.

Paramedics who arrived at the scene on Monday night found the unnamed police officer alive, but he died in hospital hours later.

The couple's one-year-old child was reportedly unharmed in the shooting, which began at about 7pm at their home in Cosmo City, north of Johannesburg.

The officer's sister-in-law, who is 16 weeks pregnant, was recovering in hospital yesterday.

Gauteng police spokesman Capt Julia Claassen said she could not comment on the shooting because detectives were still gathering information.

Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union spokesman Simon Martin said that, though he was not aware of the case, this was not the first time an officer had committed a family murder and suicide.

Cape Town policeman Marius van der Westhuizen was recently found guilty of shooting his three children dead in what was said to be an attempt to punish his wife, also a police officer.

Said Martin: "Police don't get the necessary treatment and assistance when it comes to stress." - Zwelakhe Shangase and Sapa

Man in court for pupil's murder

A 21-year-old man will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court today charged with killing and raping schoolgirl Anika Smit, 17, whose father found her body on her bed. Her hands had been chopped off.

The unnamed man, whom police believe to be her former boyfriend, was arrested on Monday.

Police arrested him at his flat at the casino at which he works in North West.

At the time of her murder, two months ago, Anika, a grade 11 pupil at Gerrit Maritz Hoërskool, was alone at the home she shares with her father in Theresa Park, north of Pretoria.

She was allegedly raped before her throat was slit and her hands cut off.

She had not gone to school that day because she was suffering from an ear infection. - Zandile Mbabela