Cops investigate mysterious burnt corpse in Soweto

Police in Soweto are investigating a mysterious murder of a man whose body was found burnt in Dlamini yesterday.

A woman who did not want to be named witnessed the shocking scene when she was passing the open veld on her way to work.

“It was about 7.35am when I passed that spot. I first thought it was just a rubbish which had burnt because people sometime dump stuff there. But when I looked closer I realised it was a man,” she said. The woman called her neighbours and police were brought to the scene.

Captain Mpande Khoza said the face of the man was covered with a cloth, and another piece of cloth was found in his mouth. An electric cable was tied around the neck which police believe was used to strangle or hang the man.

Electric cables were also used to tie the man’s hands and feet. There were pieces of wood which were burnt with the body.

The woman, whose house is separated by a wall from the scene, said her family did not hear anything the night before. “We believe that the man arrived at that spot already dead and they just poured petrol on him and set him alight. We did not notice any injuries, that are why we say there was no struggle that happened at the spot where the body was found,” said Khoza.

The man is estimated to be in his late 20s.

Khoza said the township did not have any incidents of people being burnt alive. He said when community members caught people committing crimes they would beat them but not burn them alive.

Khoza said the man could have been by a few people elsewhere before being brought to the area.

“It is not the community. When there is mob justice, there will always be noise and the neighbours here did not hear anything,” he said.

At the time when the body was found there was no smoke, therefore police believe that the body was set alight around midnight and it burned through the early hours of the morning.

None of the community members could identify the body.

A case of murder has been opened and police are awaiting postmortem results.