The double death of a soccer boss and his fiancée outside a hotel in East London yesterday morning has sent shock waves through the South African football fraternity and the ANC.
Safa national executive member Mzimkhulu Ndlelo, 54, is believed to have shot dead his ANC councillor fiancée Babalwa Ndika, 30, before turning the gun on himself.
The shocking incident left the two lovers, who have a child together, lying in pools of blood near the gutter on the side of the road opposite the King David Hotel in Inverleith Terrace in Quigney.
Ndika, Walter Sisulu Municipality’s ward3 councillor in Jamestown, was attending a four-day strategic planning session meeting at the hotel with 21 other councillors of the municipality, including mayor Bulelwa Khweyiya.
The three gunshots that rang out in the street at 9.30am brought the session to a halt and panic-stricken politicians poured into the street to see what was going on, said councillor Msokoli Jan, who was nominated to speak on behalf of a group of 10 grim-faced councillors who were milling about near the scene of the tragedy.
The bodies, covered in silver emergency blankets, lay a metre apart between the gutter and the boot of Ndlelo’s luxury sedan.
A 9mm pistol lay a metre away from Ndlelo.
The councillors said they had intervened in the couple’s affairs on Tuesday evening when Ndlelo, who lives in Komani, stormed the hotel’s dining hall and interrupted their dinner.
He had ordered Ndika to go up with him to her room where, Jan and his group alleged, he beat her.
Jan, a leader of Maletswai Civic Association, said one of the councillors received a distressed cellphone call from Ndika crying out for help. “We went up and stopped the fight and then he left.
“We didn’t know he was going to come back this morning,” said Jan.
Ndlelo and Ndika were engaged, said Khweyiya. Jan said the couple had a six-year-old son together.
Ndlelo, a former Safa president in the Chris Hani district, was a manager at the Small Enterprise Development Agency in Komani.
Cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa rushed to the hotel yesterday to see what had happened.
Speaking to the Dispatch at the scene, Xasa said he was shocked. “We will get a statement from both the family of the deceased and the municipality.
“We can only express shock and we will take it from there.”
Khweyiya confirmed that Ndlelo had paid lobola to Ndika’s family.
The mayor described Ndika as a young and active leader who had a bright future.
She said the council would meet and discuss whether to cancel the rest of the session.
Jan said Ndlelo came back in the morning and stood at the hotel entrance demanding to speak to Ndika while the session was in full swing.
“She didn’t want a scene so she went to him and they went to his car. Shortly after, we heard two gunshots and as we ran out we heard a third one, which I believe was the one that killed him.”
Khweyiya said: “As the municipality we will launch our own investigation into the incident as we don’t know the circumstances which led to it. This happened during a work programme so we cannot treat it as a personal matter between them.”
East London police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala said a 9mm pistol with five live rounds, belonging to Ndlelo, was found at the scene. Mqala said a case of murder and suicide have been opened. “The bodies were found with bullet wounds in their upper bodies.”
Security guard Themba Mlenze, who patrols outside the hotel, speaking with his boss Terry Moss by his side, said he saw the couple arguing all the way from the hotel entrance to their white Mercedes-Benz C Class vehicle.
“I saw him pulling a gun and shoot the woman twice in the chest.
“I think the bullets went straight into the heart and then he shot himself in the head. It was a horrible scene,” Mlenze said.
Safa national spokesman Dominic Chimhavi said the organisation was stunned by what happened.
“He was a very quiet and reserved man who minded his own business. We are shocked as the organisation and we will seek more details as we are in the dark at the moment,” Chimhavi said. —
malibongwed@dispatch.co.za