Gran, mom and daughter raped and murdered in Sobantu, KZN

The KwaZulu-Natal family of two women and a young girl whose bludgeoned bodies were discovered at their home in Sobantu township on Monday said they are traumatised.

Family spokesperson  Xolani Ndlela told TimesLIVE the family was haunted by the grisly image of the lifeless bodies of Zanele Ndlela, 65, Smangele Ndlela, 46, and Zenande Ndlela, 7.

Zenande was a grade 2 pupil at Alston Primary School. According to police, she and her mother, Smangele, were raped during the ordeal. 

“This was a painful sight. I couldn’t even bear seeing the image of my aunt Zanele whose body was blood-soaked,” said Xolani.

A 29-year-old man has been arrested. Xolani said the family knew the suspect and  would have never thought he would harm anyone.  

Xolani said the suspect was with him and other people on Sunday as they drank alcohol in the Ndlela home until the early hours of Monday morning.

 Xolani and the others left, leaving the suspect behind.

Later on Monday, relatives who visited the home where the Ndlela family lived did not read much into not seeing them outside the premises. 

“They tried knocking but the door had been locked,” said Xolani. “It was only in the evening when our brother made the grim discovery,” he said. 

The said his brother is inconsolable.

 “I have always known [the suspect] as someone who was quiet and reserved in the community. We had been taken by surprise by the turn of events,” said Xolani. He said upon his arrest, the suspect told the police that his actions had been clouded by a “demon”.

Police spokesperson Const Thenjiswa Ngcobo confirmed that a man who was last seen with the victims had been arrested in the neighbourhood.

She said police were stunned to find the man in bloodstained clothes.

The suspect is expected to appear in the Pietermaritzburg magistrate's court, where he is to face three counts of murder and two counts of rape.

The incident has been condemned by KZN social development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza. She described it as barbaric. 

“We are shocked by the rape and murder of a grandmother, a mother and a child. Such disgusting acts show that we have people  in our society that have lost their moral compass and cannot see what is wrong with these acts,” said Khoza.

Khoza sent a team of social workers to provide psychosocial support to the family. She urged law-enforcement officers to ensure that all the culprits  are brought to book.

“As a nation, we cannot continue like this where women and children are murdered daily. We have a responsibility to protect the vulnerable and need to ensure that we fight the scourge of gender-based violence,” said Khoza.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.