Family of murdered Irish national: ‘We loved John dearly’

The Irish national who was stabbed to death in his flat in Cape Town was on holiday after completing a two-year work contract in SA before he would have headed back home.

“We loved John dearly and are trying to deal with this tragic loss,” a family member said in a joint statement with Mellon Educate after their former education director John Curran, 60, was murdered on Wednesday.

Curran was stabbed several times in his flat in Buitengracht Street.

Mellon Educate is a non-profit which works with the government to improve the quality of education at under-resourced schools.

Mellon Educate CEO Niall Mellon said they were “deeply shocked”.

“John Curran was a very special man who was much loved by everyone who met him and especially by the thousands of children he helped during his time with Mellon Educate.”

Mellon added: “He completed his two-year contract only a week previously with Mellon Educate and he was looking forward to spending a couple of weeks holidaying in Cape Town before returning to Ireland.”

The Curran family asked for privacy during “this heartbreaking time” and said it would make no further comments.

Police spokesperson captain Ezra October said earlier on Thursday that the only thing missing was Curran’s cellphone. He said the police were waiting for the postmortem results and working through CCTV footage.

The Irish ambassador to SA Liam MacGabhann said the Irish government was offering consular support, including possibly repatriating Curran’s body.

“It’s very sad. Very, very sad.”

MacGabhann said Curran’s family was in Ireland.

The Irish Mirror online reported that Curran had been a teacher since he left school and had been the principal at the Good Shepherd National School in Dublin for 15 years.

Dragan Kuruzović, who lives in the block of flats, said in a series of tweets: “Guys, I woke up this morning at like 9 with a woman outside my room SCREAMING, 'Oh my god, my boyfriend is dead,' about 10 times.”

The police have opened a case of murder. No arrests have been made yet.