Decaying body hits cop hard
Ngwenya’s remains traumatised me – Tsatsi
A policeman who was called to the scene of a crime where the decomposing body of a North West teacher was found is still traumatised by the incident.
Warrant Officer Molefi Eric Tsatsi told the North West High Court on Monday that what he saw at the site where the body was found on October 25 2017 led to him receiving psychological help.
“I have never seen something as brutal as that; she was half naked with ants on her nose and female genitals,” Tsatsi said.
He was called as the first witness to testify in the murder trial for 56-year-old Thulisile Ngwenya, a Lekoko Primary School teacher, whose body was found a week after her death in Mahikeng.
Tsatsi, a veteran of 29 years in police service, said nothing could have prepared him to be stoic about his job after seeing Ngwenya’s badly decomposed body.
The two accused – Headman Njokweni, 61, and Sfiso Ndawonde, 56, looked and listened as Tsatsi was explaining what he had observed.
Ngwenya’s relatives broke down as Tsatsi relived what he saw on that day. Njokweni and Ndawonde are charged with murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery.
Tsatsi said Ngwenya was naked from her waist down. He said it looked as if the accused dragged her for some time as her heels were full of mud.
According to Tsatsi, it had rained a day before the incident.
Ngwenya was last seen in Mahikeng going to a local bank; she never returned to her car which was parked at the nearby taxi rank. Her body was then found a week after she went missing.
Tsatsi said besides the decomposing body, he saw Ngwenya’s panties, a white box of fried chips and saw tracks that showed that she had been dragged.
Njokweni’s attorney Xolile Babane argued that the pictures taken as exhibits from the scene showed that there were lots of other things that were found near Ngwenya’s lifeless body that Tsatsi did not mention in his testimony.
The trial continues.