Cops fetch strangled body from Wild Coast gorge

Police rescuers have retrieved the remains of a man strangled to death, allegedly  by his sister and her two sons, who are also believed to have  thrown the body off a cliff near Lusikisiki.

The badly decomposed body was retrieved late yesterday by K9 search and rescue officers who abseiled down the 150m Magwa Falls gorge  late yesterday.

The woman and her two sons, 19 and 16, were arrested on Saturday, allegedly after they confessed to suspicious Gwexintaba village residents who questioned them about three weeks after the man, 47, disappeared.   The three allegedly showed the villagers the gorge.

The K9  team – from East London, King William’s Town, Mthatha, Queenstown, Cradock and Nelson Mandela Bay Metro – abseiled down the cliffs near Lusikisiki yesterday on day two of the risky search and rescue operation.

Gale-force winds at the cliffs hampered the helicopter search.

Lusikisiki police spokesman Captain Mduduzi Godlwana said the three had been charged with murder. Godlwana declined to release their names until all next of kin had been informed.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Luxolo Tyali confirmed the three suspects had appeared in the Lusikisiki Magistrate Court.

Tyali said the case had been postponed until tomorrow  for a bail application.

The victim, who spent most of his life in Gauteng, had recently returned to his late parents’ homestead and is alleged to have tried to kick his sister out, claiming that culturally he was the legitimate head of the house.

When she refused, he took the matter to the tribal court, which ruled in his favour.

Local headman Dumisani Mkwedini believes the three attacked the man at home on the evening of September 9.

After tying his hands and strangling him to death, they stuffed his body into a wheelbarrow and threw him over the cliff, Mkwedini said.

“We got information from other young men in the village that she previously asked them to do the job for her but they refused.

“They told us this during a meeting where she was present. She did not deny it.”

The sister, 43, had arrived in Gwexintaba village about five years ago, he said, adding she had been married for many years when she did not live in the village. She came back five years ago to live in her parents’ house with her sons when her marriage ended.

During that time, she had built herself a two-room house inside the yard.

It was alleged the deceased had then asked his sister to move out of their parents’ homestead as he was the rightful heir.

“She refused to move out and they took the matter to the tribal court. is the eldest and the site belonged to him. That’s how it works,” said Mkwedini.