I knew he would kill her gran

THE grandmother of a KwaZulu-Natal woman who was allegedly abducted by her boyfriend, killed and dumped in sugarcane fields, yesterday said her granddaughter was in an abusive relationship with the man.

Ignatia Mntungwa, 77, testified in the Durban High Court that her 24-year-old granddaughter Nomathamsanqa and her alleged killer Nathi Nyamazane were lovers and that their relationship was characterised by violence.

“When my granddaughter fell pregnant with his child, the accused became very violent. He would come and demand to see Nomathamsanqa at our home. At one stage he seized her cellphone and locked her in his house, not allowing anyone to speak to her or see her,” she said.

Mntungwa could not hold back her tears when she relayed the horror of finding her granddaughter’s body after nine months of frantic search by police and family members.

Acting Judge Mlungisi Sabela had to adjourn the court for an hour to allow her to compose herself.

“I knew that eventually he was going to kill her. I feared for her life every day she was with him.

“When we found her body dumped in the sugarcane fields, I just said to myself, ‘this boy has finally killed my granddaughter’.” Nyamazane, 31, is facing two counts of murder and one of failing to produce the firearm allegedly used in committing the crimes.

According to the indictment, Nyamazane killed Nomathamsanqa on February 20 2014 and dumped her body in the sugarcane fields in Mount Edgecombe.

Four days later, he went to Oakford Primary School in Verulam near Durban, where he ambushed her mother Thandi and shot her dead in full view of pupils.

Thandi, a prominent ANC activist in the Inanda area, was working as a clerk at Oakford primary.

It is alleged that Nyamazane had demanded custody of his two-year-old baby and saw Thandi as a hindrance to his ambitions and then sought to kill her.

Asked by prosecutor Sandile Xaba why she had sent Nomathamsanqa to stay in Pietermaritzburg with relatives, Mntungwa replied: “The accused had made threats that he would teach her a lesson, that’s why we hid her away.”

Sachin Govender, the lawyer representing Nyamazane, said his client was passionately in love with Nomathamsanqa and would never have killed her.

“When the accused gets his chance, he’ll tell this court that he had paid lobola for the deceased and was planning to marry her, why would he kill somebody he loved so dearly,” asked Govender.

The trial continues.

“I feared for her life every day she was with him