Residents are reeling following the brutal murder of a teenage mother in a small North Coast community.

The badly decomposed body of 18-year-old Xolile Mpanza was discovered dumped in a sugarcane field in Dokodweni.

She had been missing for nearly two weeks, having last been seen on May 14. Her body was found on May 21, and police were alerted shortly afterwards.

Xolile’s uncle, Jabulani Mpanza, said the family was devastated by the tragedy.

“We are deeply traumatised by this,” he said.

“I used to see things like this happen to other people, and now it has hit home. Our entire family is deeply saddened by the passing of our child. We can’t even sleep. She was just a child, with her whole future ahead of her.”

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli visited the Mpanza family home in the Mandeni local municipality and urged anyone with information about the murder to come forward.

The slain teen leaves behind a three-year-old child.

Xolile’s death is the latest in a string of recent violent crimes against women and children in the region.

On Boxing Day, a farmworker strangled his girlfriend’s three-year-old child after a domestic dispute and dumped the body in a sugarcane field in Tongaat.

The a day before Xolile’s body was found, a woman in Tongaat CBD had her stomach slashed open after she allegedly refused to have sex with an unknown man. She was rushed to a clinic in a trolley but died the following day.

In another incident in Dokodweni, Premier Ntuli reported that two men allegedly raped a 17-year-old girl, who is currently in hospital.

Ntuli said gender-based violence in the province was out of control.

“These gender-based crimes are a pandemic in KZN. If the perpetrator is not caught, he will continue committing these crimes,” he said.

Ntuli has appealed to the community to contact 0800 10111 with any information that may assist Saps in making an arrest.

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