The tight-knit and isolated Coedmore Informal Settlement community in KZN was left in shock after one of its residents was arrested for the alleged murder of his partner and the rape of his 12-year-old stepdaughter.

It is alleged that the 49-year-old man murdered his girlfriend after she confronted him with accusations that he had been raping her daughter.

It is claimed that he bludgeoned and stabbed her to death in front of her child and lived with her body for an unknown amount of time before the smell of her decomposing body became too pungent.

It is believed that this was when he hatched a plan to bury her body in a chicken coop, a metre away from his front door.

Communications officer of Bellair SAPS Warrant Officer Pam Pillay says police were called out after residents learnt of the horrific incident last Tuesday.

“Police were alerted to the discovery of a shallow grave in which the girlfriend of the suspect was buried more than a month ago. The deceased’s 12-year-old daughter became concerned when she realised that her mother had left her with her stepfather and had not returned more than a month later.

“According to the child, the suspect had told her that her mother was leaving for Mozambique and that she had decided never to return to South Africa. The child then approached community members of the informal settlement for help regarding her mother’s disappearance,” says Pillay.

Pillay says that it is alleged by the child and community members that the accused and the deceased had an abusive relationship. “They confronted the suspect and enquired about his girlfriend’s disappearance, which led to the confession of the murder.

“The shallow grave was then pointed out by the suspect, which was a few metres away from the room they had shared. It was later discovered that the minor had also [allegedly] been sexually abused by the stepfather,” she adds.

Child asks for help

The chairperson of the Coedmore Informal Settlement and a resident for the past 17 years, Mziwosindiso Mtheli, says the child came to him for help.

“The child came to me, in my capacity as the area committee chairperson, to ask for help. She was accompanied by a few women from the neighbourhood and requested that I ask her mother’s boyfriend what had happened to her mother. The little girl told us that her mother disappeared after she and her boyfriend had gotten into an argument,” says Mtheli.

“When we initially questioned him [the suspect] about the victim’s whereabouts, he told us that he had seen her in Clairwood in the company of her ex-boyfriend. He also said another woman saw her in Umbilo on a different occasion. We took his explanation at face value. Some time passed and the victim still did not return to the settlement or contact her brothers. We then decided to call a community meeting to question the suspect again because we were starting to believe that something terrible might have happened to her.

“At first, he denied harming her or knowing anything about her disappearance. Members of the community did not believe him and we continued to question him for more than two hours. In the process, he was also beaten. That is when he confessed to killing her. He told us that he had buried her body in the chicken coop in front of his shack. When we went to the coop, we saw that the soil, under the heaps of junk, had recently been upturned. We decided to call the police at that point,” he adds.

Child knew mother was dead

“[The child] told us that her mother and the suspect got into an argument after she found out that the man was [allegedly] raping her.

“The child [said she] witnessed her mother being killed and then he [the suspect] threatened to kill her too if she told anyone about what happened. When the little girl came to us asking for help, she was too afraid to reveal that her mother had been killed.

“From what we were able to establish, it seems as if he killed her, placed her body in a portable metal bathtub and then kept that body inside his shack for a long time. He and the little girl lived with the body in the shack. The stench from the rotting carcass and the flies then became too much to bear. At that time, the neighbours had also started to complain about flies in the area. That is when he decided to bury her. The child also said that the tools used to kill her mother were a hammer and a sharp iron rod,” Mtheli told the Rising Sun.

The community is in shock following the incident. “We have heard about such incidents in the news. I never thought it would happen here, to our neighbour,” he adds.

The accused has been charged with murder and rape and will remain in custody until his next court appearance.

“Domestic violence is a very serious crime. Victims of domestic violence are encouraged to report to their local police or social worker any form of violence they may experience. Any community member who witnesses these incidents must report it to their local police; they can do so anonymously. Reporting such incidents could prevent lives being lost to domestic violence,” says Pillay.

The station commander of Bellair SAPS, Lieutenant Colonel Braveman Dladla, strongly condemns community members and victims taking the law into their own hands.