Family want life for killers of JMPD cop

‘My mother isn’t coping. This was the second child she had to bury’

THE grieving family of slain Joburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) inspector Ayanda Zulu are demanding a manhunt for her killers.

The 39-year-old mother-offour was shot dead outside her house in Palm Springs, south of Joburg, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Zulu was leaving her home when she was confronted by two men who shot her twice and fled with her 9mm firearm and two magazines.

Her husband, Leonard Khosa, said her wife’s killers should be given life imprisonment. “I really don’t know how to feel,” he said while sobbing.

“If it was my will, if they get them, they should get the life sentence to pay. That is, if justice is on our side, the side of police officers,” he said.

Khosa worked with his wife in the department and had a 3-year-old daughter.

“She was a lovely woman and mother, who loved smiling and, like any other person, she had boundaries. She was a hard worker,” he said.

Zulu has been with the JMPD for four years.

Khosa said he was in the house when the incident happened, and described how horrified he was when he found his wife’s lifeless body lying in the street.

“In the morning, I saw her getting ready for work and she said goodbye like any other day. I normally follow in order to close the gate but I delayed.

“I then heard a loud bang and her screams… only to find her lying on the floor outside.”

Thembi Nkabinde, Zulu’s sister, said the family were distraught. Zulu was the mother of Ayanda, Junior, Lethabo and Naledi.

Nkabinde said her mother was not coping because this was the second child she had had to bury in less than five months. “It’s very painful, I don’t want to lie,” she said.

“Ayanda and I were very close. I was the older sister. Everything she wanted to do, she would call me first.”

Police have confirmed a manhunt is under way to find the suspects.

Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane said she was appalled by the brutal killing, adding the province had been robbed of a selfless and dedicated officer.

“Her passing is not in vain. It will not weaken the morale of our police force but will instead encourage them to do even more to continue to protect and serve our communities,” Nkosi-Malobane said.

“I appeal to the criminal justice system to expedite this case and give the perpetrators the harshest sentence. This will send a strong message to would-be perpetrators that such atrocities cannot be tolerated in our country,” she said.