TWO months after a Chinese woman was viciously murdered at her family business in Umzimkhulu in June, her grieving husband says he is no closer to finding out why she had to be killed.
Meimei Wang (34), was strangled, stabbed 21 times and repeatedly hit over the head with a 9kg gas cylinder at her shop on June 17.
Two men pleaded guilty to murder in the Pietermaritzburg High Court last Wednesday. Sivuyile Lukhakhayi and Amandla Vukaphi, both 21 years old and still in school, were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 15 years each for robbery.
A third accused, Tshidiso Rampesi (18), who worked as a guard at the store, pleaded guilty last week and was sentenced to an effective 20 years in prison.
Her husband, Shoulong Chan, who moved back to China after the murder, returned to South Africa for the verdict last Wednesday, but missed the verdict as his flight was delayed. He said he still could not fathom why his wife had to be killed.
Mr Chan has since sold the business and moved back to China with his three children, who are eight, five and three years old.
The couple had moved to South Africa about six years ago.
Mr Chan said the family has seen video footage of the murder taking place and “it was brutal.”
“It showed Lukhakhayi and Vukhapi stabbing Wang repeatedly as she lay on the floor, and Rampesi hitting her nine times on the head with the gas cylinder. They then poured paraffin on her body, but fled when they heard the police approaching and therefore did not set her body alight,” he said.
