He killed my sister and five others and shattered our lives
Joyce Moyo dreamed of a better life for her three children, so she made a bold move leaving her home in Zimbabwe to find work in South Africa.
But it all went horribly wrong, and her children, aged 14, 11, and eight, will never see their mother again.
Moyo was one of the six murdered women whose bodies were discovered in a panel-beating shop in the Joburg CBD last year, in varying stages of decomposition.
This week, the trial against Sifiso Mkhwanazi, 21, began in the Palm Ridge district court.
Mkhwanazi was arrested last October, and charged with six counts of murder, seven of rape, six of defeating or obstructing the administration of justice, robbery with aggravating circumstances and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Two of the victims have not yet been identified.
“He must rot in jail,” Moyo’s younger sister, Grace Moyo, told the Sunday Times from her home near Beitbridge in Zimbabwe.
“But still, there is no amount of imprisonment that will make us forgive him or forget what he did. He deprived my sister’s children of a better life.
“It’s hard, I’m now left with the responsibility of looking after her children and mine, yet I’m not working. Joyce was a sole breadwinner and the reason she left for South Africa was because she could see that we were struggling.”
Grace said the family was still finding it difficult to accept her death. She said her sister had moved to South Africa “some years ago”.
“Joyce told us that she was working as a security guard and would send money to the family every month.”
Grace does “piecemeal jobs” to put food on the table. She travels between Zimbabwe and Thembisa on the East Rand to secure work.
“Joyce was able to send money every month and that helped a lot.”
Joyce’s life in Johannesburg is still a mystery to the family. The four identified victims have been confirmed as being sex workers in the area.
“All we know was that she was a security
guard at one of the companies in Johannesburg,” Grace said. At the time of her murder, Joyce was living in Sophiatown, while Grace was living in Thembisa.
“We used to speak every day. After one day went by without speaking to her I tried calling, but no-one picked up. I sent a WhatsApp message and it was delivered but not read. On the third day I decided to check up on her at her place. When I got there her neighbours told me she had left three days earlier, about 6pm, and never returned.
“I opened a case with the police. Days went by and I got a call on October 9 from a lady who told me there had been girls found dead at a building and my sister could be there. I went there and found out that my sister had passed away.
“I hoped it was a case of mistaken identity. We were really shocked and the death took a toll on the family, especially her oldest child. She is doing form 5 and her marks have dropped since her mother’s death. This man has caused serious damage to our family. We hope he will be punished for his
crimes.”
Most of the testimony in court this week centred on Mkhwanazi’s confession to his father, Mark Khumalo, who owned the business where the bodies were found.
Mkhwanazi claimed he had been coerced into confessing.
In the confession, he said he had smothered five women and shot a sixth. Khumalo is a witness in the case.
On Friday, the court ruled that the confession was admissible.
“The conversation that took place between Mkhwanazi and Khumalo was made freely, without any influence,” judge Cassem Moosa ruled.
Katlego Rasibitse, the national organiser of Sisonke a national movement of sex workers cautioned people against assuming all of Mkhwanazi’s victims had been sex workers.
“The four who were identified have been confirmed as such, but the other two could have accidentally crossed paths with their killer. We believe that calling all the victims sex workers might make family members hesitate to come forward and claim their loved ones.”