Cop and husband shot in their bed
Son (7) saw killing of parents
A seven-year-old Mpumalanga boy who saw his parents being shot and killed is too traumatised to talk about the gruesome incident, the family said. Sergeant Thembisile Ndlovu, who was based at the Calcutta police station in Bushbuckridge, and her unemployed husband, Jabulani Khoza, where shot and killed on Saturday morning when three intruders entered their home while they were asleep. Ndlovu, 42, died on the scene, while Khoza, 40, died at a clinic. According to Khoza’s brother, Arnold Khoza, the dead couple’s son witnessed the shooting.
Arnold said his sister-in-law died while she tried to protect her family from intruders. “I praise her for her bravery. She shot dead one of the intruders, but she was also shot dead. She died on the scene,” a distraught Arnold told Sowetan yesterday.
“I stay about 700 meters from their house. I heard gun shots when we were preparing to go to a funeral with my wife. “We tried to contact them, but they did not answer their cellphones,” Arnold said.
“I got a call from a neighbour about the shooting. Just when we approached the door, his son came towards us crying, ‘daddy has been shot and mama is dead’. The boy is so traumatised we have arranged counselling for him.” Arnold said they took his brother to the local clinic as an ambulance took long to arrive. He said before his brother died, he managed to pass on information to them about what happened.
“He said they were sleeping when they saw men inside the house, and his wife shot one of the intruders, but she was also shot and died on the scene.” Mpumalanga police spokesperson Col Mtsholi Bhembe said they had opened two counts of murder and one of inquest.
“We are still identifying the suspect who was shot dead, and we have opened an inquest docket on his death, and two murder cases,”
“No one has been arrested, and we are investigating,” said Bhembe. Police also said that the suspects got away in the the couple’s Chevrolet Spark, which was later recovered elsewhere in Bushbuckridge.