Rhodes Park victims pick up pieces after murders
Fresh start after move to Durban
Two women who survived the infamous Rhodes Park double murder drownings in 2015 have found a new lease of life and turned their lives around from the spine-chilling crime misfortune that stunned the nation.
Sunday marks six years since Siphokazi Tyeke [nee Diko] and Jabu Mbatha’s lives were turned upside down when a group of about eight men accosted them with their husbands at Rhodes Park, Johannesburg. The couples had been taking an early evening stroll after a church service. The gang robbed them of their belongings, tied the husbands’ hands behind their backs before drowning them in a lake.
Three of the men proceeded to rape Tyeke and Mbatha before they fled the scene. They took their clothes, jewellery and a cellphone which they later sold for R320.
Tyeke and Mbatha have since relocated to Durban to pick up the pieces of their lives. They left Johannesburg in 2017 to live with their families as they were unemployed and had depended on their husbands.
Tyeke now works for the SAPS while Mbatha is doing her practicals in nursing at a Durban hospital.
Tyeke works in the administration block where she receives calls from victims of crimes and link them with detectives.
“I first went home in Makanda [formerly known as Grahamstown] but life wasn’t the same. I then came to Durban. I met new people who put me in a volunteering work at Newland West police station,” said Tyeke.
“It’s a nice job. It heals me. I get to interact with GBV victims and I’d share my story with them. I’d show them that there is more to life. Initially, I’d cry when I relay my trauma
but I don’t cry anymore. I’ ma lot stronger now. I would love to move into the social work space where I can help more people.”
In March 2017, judge Papi
Mosopa sentenced Thabo Nkala, Edmor Ndlovu and Mduduzi Mathibela to four life imprisonment terms for murder and rape.
The fourth suspect was aragainst
rested in Zimbabwe and his extradition to SA had not been finalised when the trial was concluded at Palm Ridge high court. The rest of the suspects were never captured.
“Justice was served with regards to the four that were arrested, but I feel that the police could have done better by arresting all of them [gang]. I feel that justice was not completely served,” said Tyeke.
After the incident, Tyeke and Mbatha were placed at Ikhaya Lethemba, a shelter in Johannesburg, where they’d receive counselling and accommodation while attending the trial.
“Since I left Ikhaya Lethamba in 2017, I feel that we’ve been left in the cold because nobody contacts us for updates about the rest of the case. I see things on Facebook,” said Mbatha.
“I only know that four people were arrested and three were convicted. I don’t know what happened to the rest.”
W/O Bruce van der Schyff, who led the investigation, said his team had to make a tough decision of not pursuing a case
the fourth suspect arrested in Zimbabwe and focus on the trio that was already on trial in Johannesburg.
“The Zimbabwean police arrested the fourth suspect two weeks before our own trial started and were pressuring us to make a decision because he had been in custody for weeks. We had to make a decision of whether we drop our trial and allow the fourth suspect to be extradited, but the mental status of the two ladies [Tyeke and Mbatha] was too severe to keep them hanging.
“They wanted a solution and even one postponement was hurting them mentally.
“We had no choice but to cut our losses and carry on with our trial,” said Van der Schyff yesterday.
Tyeke has since found a new partner while Mbatha has remarried.
“We started out as friends and I only discovered later that he knew about the Rhodes Park story but he didn’t expect me to have been one of the survivors. He took the whole thing very well and is supportive,” said Tyeke.