Neighbours heard quarrel before woman was beheaded: 'Why do you hold a knife every time we fight?'

Neighbours at an apartment block in Kempton Park, where a woman was killed and her head cut off, have told how the couple regularly fought.

Residents of the complex told Sowetan that an argument between two lovers had sparked the deadly fight. The 31-year-old boyfriend of the deceased was arrested at a shop that he ran with the deceased on Friday afternoon.

Neighbours said they heard the two arguing about 10pm on Thursday. "She told him to get out of her life. 'You are nothing. You don't have a bed, the bed you sleep on is mine. Everything in this room is mine. Even the shop is mine,' the woman was saying."

The neighbour said the woman left the room about midnight and the argument started again when the victim returned to the room a few moments later.

"She said 'Open for me. I want to sleep'. When she was inside she asked him: 'Why do you hold a knife every time we have a fight? The next thing she was screaming and it went quiet. The man later went out to shower and when he returned we could hear him making sounds. He opened the fridge several times."

Another neighbour said she became concerned when the woman did not come out of the room the next day after her boyfriend left for work.

"We asked the caretaker to open the room. The bed was not made and when he pulled one of the blankets he got a fright of his life," she said.

Another neighbour confirmed that the woman's head was missing.

Kempton Park police spokesperson Capt Jethro Mtshali said the accused pointed out where he had kept the head. He made his first appearance in the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court on Monday, where he faced a charge of murder. He was not asked to plead.

"The victim's family has not yet been notified," said Mtshali.

The matter was postponed to next week.

- SowetanLIVE