A voice recording of a man purportedly confessing to killing East London mother Busisiwe Ngwadla this week is being investigated by police.
Ngwadla, a 37-year-old, self-employed businesswoman who sold health products, was found by neighbours lying in a pool of blood in front of her bathroom door at the Emerald Sky flats in Amalinda on Tuesday.
According to relatives, she was in a long- term relationship with a businessman who commutes between East London and Cape Town. The man apparently disappeared after Ngwadla was brutally killed – and his whereabouts are unknown.
Neighbours at the block of flats told the Daily Dispatch they had overheard the couple having a heated argument on Tuesday.
The neighbours claimed to have spotted blood on the man’s T-shirt before he was seen “rushing out” of the apartment block.
In the five-minute recording, in which the man speaks isiXhosa, he is heard confessing to the murder of a woman he was allegedly in a relationship with.
He says: “You know how I loved that person [victim], you know the way we did things and leaving my wife I had who then died because of stress . . . I gave up on friends. We did everything that we needed to for her development.
“I paid rent, I made her a better person, and I did her hair . . . her tenders did not pay her out and she lost R80,000 and got out of that . . . I did everything in that household, I paid for her son’s fees, bought them clothes and took risks for her.”
The man claimed the woman was involved in an affair.
“When I checked on WhatsApp, the guy had asked for her photo and she was explaining where they would meet and I took the number and called the guy swearing at him.
“One day we were in Cape Town together and I saw that she was on WhatsApp with him, and she told me lies, thinking I do not know what is happening.
He continues: “I told her that I once called the guy and I know that she is telling lies, and she got angry and we ended up fighting till we were stopped by family members. We left for East London and the issue ended. I was in Cape Town to work for her so we could be able to pay R4,000 rent per month while she cheated on me.”
The recording mentions that the man who was having an affair with the woman is a well-known Eastern Cape government spokesperson.
“I ended up being angry and I stabbed her my brother . . . then I killed her.”
The government spokesperson identified in the recording did not respond to questions or phone calls from the Dispatch.
Police spokesperson Captain Nkosikho Mzuku said the voice recording had been “noted” by the officer who was investigating the case. “All leads that can assist in cracking the investigation in the murder in Amalinda are being followed,” Mzuko said.
He would not be drawn into whether police had identified a suspect.
Ngwadla’s family told the Daily Dispatch they recognised the person speaking in the recording, which has been circulated on social media.
Ngwadla’s distraught brother, Thabo, accused police of being “too slow” to act.
“This guy was seen walking around a mall in Gugulethu [Cape Town],” he alleged...