Missing councillor begged for mercy

A massive search around Bhisho for missing Eastern Cape senior councillor and former ANC Youth League leader Nolundi Banoyolo Ludidi, 30, was called off late on Tuesday.

The ANC PR councillor and Mhlontlo municipality’s special programmes unit portfolio head disappeared on Saturday.

The search team was later joined by Mhlontlo mayor Nompumelelo Dywili and provincial sport, recreation, arts & culture MEC Fezeka Bayeni. No clues were found.

Ludidi, a mother of a boy aged seven, is the former ANC Youth League OR Tambo regional treasurer. She was last seen on Saturday afternoon at 3pm hitchhiking from Tsolo to Port Elizabeth where she was to visit her boyfriend, according to a friend, Nosicelo Putye.

Putye said Ludidi, whose car was in for repairs in Mthatha, was last seen alighting a white Isuzu bakkie bound for Mthatha. Hours later she sent a voice note to friends saying she had taken another lift from Mthatha to King William’s Town, where she arrived at around 8pm. She later sent three WhatsApp voice notes to her boyfriend where she could be heard asking the driver why he was taking her to an isolated bushy area near Bhisho.

Her pleas are heard as she tries to get out of the vehicle, asking why the doors are centrally locked. The last voice note she sent to her boyfriend was recorded just after 9pm.

Putye said the boyfriend had called Ludidi’s sister after he had received the voice notes on Saturday evening, but that her sister was sleeping and only saw the calls in the morning.

A case was opened in Tsolo on Sunday. On Tuesday morning desperate and concerned family members and friends went to the provincial police headquarters in Zwelitsha, where a statement was taken and a search team dispatched.

On Tuesday the DispatchLIVE team joined a group of search- and-rescue dog unit police members in six vehicles as they swept bushy areas and a dam around Bhisho.

Members had come from Port Elizabeth, Cradock, Mthatha and East London.

More than 20 ANCYL members from Buffalo City Metro, OR Tambo and Amathole regions also joined the search.

A number of police dogs were unleashed into the bush to pick up her scent, but to no avail.

DispatchLIVE has listened to the voice notes.

She pleads: “Why are you taking me to bushy areas around Bhisho while you were meant to take me to King William’s Town? We have been going around these bushy areas for the past three hours, and if you cannot take me to King, please open the doors for me to get out of this vehicle.”

She is heard praying to God that the driver will change his “crooked mind”. In all the voice notes, her voice is blurry, prompting friends to suspect she was drunk or drugged.

The driver, also speaking in a slurred voice, is heard pleading with her to go home with him. She repeatedly refuses.

Her sister, Queen Ludidi, said she was last seen wearing blue jeans, a maroon Guess T-shirt, Lacoste sneakers and a black jacket with an ANC logo.

She was carrying a blue sports bag and a black purse.

“As her family and friends we hope and pray she will be found alive,” her sister said.

Mayor Dywili, speaking as she searched, said the council and officials were shocked.

Bayeni said: “Because the premier [Oscar Mabuyane] had appointed me the champion of gender machinery, where part of my responsibilities is to look at all gender-related issues, I decided to also join the search team late on Tuesday.”

A Walter Sisulu University student at the Mthatha campus was taken to Mthatha General Hospital after she was assaulted, allegedly by a man known to her, on Monday.

Students who asked not to be named said she was dragged in full view of other students. University spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo confirmed the matter was reported to them and they were investigating.

Students abandoned classes and marched to campus control and later to the police station on Monday. SRC gender officer Luvo Kasa confirmed the matter was reported to them and they had notified management.