Police seek family’s newfound relative
Seven bodies found buried in a house
Teboho Lekoetje broke down as he stood outside the house where his daughter was found among seven people killed and buried under a heap of sand in the house.
The gruesome discovery of the seven bodies was made on Sunday at a house in Ibis Street, Vlakfontein, south of Johannesburg.
All the deceased were members of the Khoza family whose killing remains a mystery. The deceased were Mbali, Dudu, 46, Nomfundo, 28, Karabo, 11, Luyanda, seven, Sbonga, three, and Lerato, two. Lekoetje said he last saw his daughter Karabo two months ago. He said he texted Karabo’s mother Nomfundo on Friday asking her to bring their daughter for an ancestral ceremony. “She refused and I was disappointed that my daughter would not [attend] the ceremony. On Sunday I was called by a neighbour to come to Nomfundo’s place as something bad has happened. “When I arrived the smell was unbearable and there was a heap of sand where the bodies were buried. I don’t understand how one can kill innocent kids like that.” Police spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo said they were investigating cases of murder.
“A man alleged to have been staying with the deceased has since been taken in for questioning. We are also searching for a second man known as Sibusiso Ernest Khoza who could help with the investigation,” Masondo said. Yesterday, neighbours gathered at the house to help a relative, Ningi, 42, clean up. Ningi said Mbali met Sibusiso on Facebook as he was looking for his late father’s family.
She said Sibusiso had been staying with the family for three months.
“He came under the pretence that he was my late uncle’s lost son from Cape Town.
“On Saturday my daughter received a WhatsApp message from Nomfundo’s phone saying she was in Cape Town. We found that odd and tried to call her but it went straight to voicemail, and the same thing happened with my other sisters’ number. I decided to go to the house and was greeted by a terrible smell,” she said. She said a mattress was places against the window in one room and the floors were sprinkled with Jeyes fluid ostensibly to mask the smell. “What’s confusing is that my boyfriend’s sister slept in this house for two days. How is it possible that she did not see anything?”
Sowetan also spoke to one of the tenants of three years, Prince Manomano, 25. “When I asked Sibusiso about the terrible smell he said it was just rat poison, I did not suspect anything, as he told me that everyone had left,” Manomano said.
One of the neighbours, Nompi Ndaba, said they suspected something was amiss when Mbali failed to attend her neighbour’s funeral. “On Saturday when we were busy with the funeral proceedings, Sibusiso played loud music from outside the house,” she said.