A manhunt has been launched for a man who killed a 70-year-old woman and two grandchildren, and later, with another man, raped a domestic worker.
The crimes took place in Nqadu village in Matolweni location, about 5km from amaXhosa King Zwelonke Mpendulo Sigcawu’s Great Place.
Eastern Cape police said Nothamelasi Mpongwana, 70, her grandson Ayabulela, 11, who was in Grade 5, and nine-year-old granddaughter Aisha, who was in Grade 2, were killed before their house was set on fire on Tuesday morning.
The family’s domestic worker, who survived that ordeal, was raped and dragged into a nearby village where she managed to escape with her life.
She has since been taken to a place of safety.
Police spokesman Captain Jackson Manatha said initially the fire was thought to have been caused by an electrical fault.
However when relatives of the elderly woman discovered that the body of the domestic worker was not among the charred corpses they suspected foul play.
It is believed the family was killed by a man who gained entry through a window in the dining-room.
Mpongwana’s daughter, Kholeka Mpongwana, said the man is believed to have broken into the house to rob her mother of her pension grant, which she had received on Monday.
She believed the man panicked when he found the elderly woman was not alone, but that the two grandchildren and domestic worker were also sleeping in the bedroom.
The three were said to have been strangled to death, but the domestic worker, who had reported for duty for the first time on Monday, was spared.
“He did not know her as she came from another village.
“He raped her there first and later dragged her away with him,” said Mpongwana.
Before fleeing, the man found a bottle of paraffin in the kitchen.
“He poured petrol on the couches and sheets and set them alight. He then locked the door when he left,” Mpongwana said.
She said the man dragged the domestic worker to the valley that separates the village from a neighbouring village, where another man was waiting.
Mpongwana said the men raped her again.
“After they had raped her, they smoked drugs and drank alcohol and passed out. That’s when the woman managed to escape,” said Mpongwana.
Manatha said they were investigating a docket involving murder, arson and rape.
Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle called on police to act swiftly to ensure that the perpetrators were brought to book.
The men are still at large.
The latest murders add to a tally of more than 50 elderly women and children killed in the rural east of the Eastern Cape during the past seven years.
Most were killed in witchcraft-related attacks, while others were simply killed for their meagre belongings.
The Daily Dispatch exposed in an exclusive report on September 19 that many of the women, some of them as old as 90, were raped before being shot, gunned down, strangled, stoned, burnt or hacked to death. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
‘Panicked’ burglar kills, rapes, burns
The crimes took place in Nqadu village in Matolweni location, about 5km from amaXhosa King Zwelonke Mpendulo Sigcawu’s Great Place.
Eastern Cape police said Nothamelasi Mpongwana, 70, her grandson Ayabulela, 11, who was in Grade 5, and nine-year-old granddaughter Aisha, who was in Grade 2, were killed before their house was set on fire on Tuesday morning.
The family’s domestic worker, who survived that ordeal, was raped and dragged into a nearby village where she managed to escape with her life.
She has since been taken to a place of safety.
Police spokesman Captain Jackson Manatha said initially the fire was thought to have been caused by an electrical fault.
However when relatives of the elderly woman discovered that the body of the domestic worker was not among the charred corpses they suspected foul play.
It is believed the family was killed by a man who gained entry through a window in the dining-room.
Mpongwana’s daughter, Kholeka Mpongwana, said the man is believed to have broken into the house to rob her mother of her pension grant, which she had received on Monday.
She believed the man panicked when he found the elderly woman was not alone, but that the two grandchildren and domestic worker were also sleeping in the bedroom.
The three were said to have been strangled to death, but the domestic worker, who had reported for duty for the first time on Monday, was spared.
“He did not know her as she came from another village.
“He raped her there first and later dragged her away with him,” said Mpongwana.
Before fleeing, the man found a bottle of paraffin in the kitchen.
“He poured petrol on the couches and sheets and set them alight. He then locked the door when he left,” Mpongwana said.
She said the man dragged the domestic worker to the valley that separates the village from a neighbouring village, where another man was waiting.
Mpongwana said the men raped her again.
“After they had raped her, they smoked drugs and drank alcohol and passed out. That’s when the woman managed to escape,” said Mpongwana.
Manatha said they were investigating a docket involving murder, arson and rape.
Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle called on police to act swiftly to ensure that the perpetrators were brought to book.
The men are still at large.
The latest murders add to a tally of more than 50 elderly women and children killed in the rural east of the Eastern Cape during the past seven years.
Most were killed in witchcraft-related attacks, while others were simply killed for their meagre belongings.
The Daily Dispatch exposed in an exclusive report on September 19 that many of the women, some of them as old as 90, were raped before being shot, gunned down, strangled, stoned, burnt or hacked to death. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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