Arrests imminent after murder of elderly Keiskammahoek woman — Mabuyane

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane is confident that arrests are imminent in the case of the 85-year-old businesswoman who was brutally murdered in Keiskammahoek at the weekend.

Mabuyane on Tuesday visited the family of Nonkosazana Manase, whose body was discovered by a domestic worker, to give them moral support.

He said police had informed him and provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nomthetheleli Mene that they were pursuing about four people of interest.

“I hope that very soon they will be able to get them behind bars,” Mabuyane said.

“Today we had to find time to come and visit the family just to make sure that the family understands that we are with them during this difficult time.

“Once again, I want to take this opportunity to convey our heartfelt condolences to this family and other families in the areas around here.

“I’m told that there are three other elderly women who also lost their lives because of these heinous crimes.”

Mabuyane said it was bad that this had happened to someone who had invested everything in the local economy.

It showed, he said, the level of moral decay.

“The problem of drugs in our rural and urban areas is uncontrollable.

“We have got a lot of work to do ... being families ... society at large ... to work with police and make sure that we are dealing with these issues.

“It’s very bad that we are losing  older people [in this manner].”

Gender-based violence has been a problem facing the country, but the government has been working hard dealing with it.

In 2018, Mabuyane said, he and President Cyril Ramaphosa had launched a programme aimed at fighting the scourge.

“But that thing [GBV] never stopped,” he said.

“Basically, we were beginning to mitigate what was happening on gender-based violence in Lusikisiki up until we had this shock of 18 people killed.

“It’s a societal problem, it happens all over.

“That’s why I’m saying,  when you look at it, no ordinary people can do these things.

“This has got something to do with drug abuse — people who lost their humanity.”

Mabuyane said he was happy the government had joined forces with police to tackle crime.

The Keiskammahoek area needed more resources to intensify the war against crime.

“We had thugs here who were killed, five of them, who were doing cash-in-transit heists  on the N6, so incidents of crime are becoming common.

“Qoboqobo is becoming synonymous with criminal offences.”

The victim’s brother-in-law, Mthuthuzeli Manase, said they were shocked but had no choice but to accept a  situation they could not change.

Manase said his sister might have been targeted by criminals who wanted money since she was a businesswoman.

“Obviously, they have planned it,” he said.

In previous robbery incidents, criminals had made off with cash when targeting his sister-in-law.

“I don’t know this time around whether they took it,” he said.

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