Double killing rocks Rhodes campus
Love triangle thought to have led to deaths
AN early-morning shooting has left a Rhodes student and her boyfriend dead in what appears to have been a crime of passion.
Police said Nkosinathi Nqabisa, 34, walked into Cullen Bowles residence at the university at about 6am yesterday, looking for his girlfriend, Amanda Tweyi, 21.
When he found her in a male student’s room, he confronted Tweyi and her companion.
A police spokesman, Lieutenant Luvuyo Mjekula, said shots were fired soon after Nqabisa entered the room.
Mjekula said Tweyi had no obvious bullet or other wounds, but the dead woman’s mother, Debra Tweyi, said she had been shown a bullet wound and strangulation marks on her daughter’s body in the mortuary.
Nqabisa died from what appeared to be a selfinflicted shot to the head.
A WOMAN student at Rhodes University and her boyfriend died in what appears to have been a murder-suicide at a men’s residence on the campus early yesterday.
The killings appear to have been part of a love triangle.
Police said 34-year-old Nkosinathi Nqabisa walked into Cullen Bowles residence at the university at about 6am in search of Amanda Tweyi, 21, a third-year pharmacy student and the mother of a two-year-old boy, Dalihlobe.
Nqabisa allegedly found Tweyi in the room of a male student, who fled to find help, police spokesman Lieutenant Luvuyo Mjekula said. He said shots had been fired soon after Nqabisa entered the room.
Amanda’s mother, Debra Tweyi, 39, said she had seen her daughter’s body in the Grahamstown mortuary. It had a bullet wound in the chest and strangulation marks on the neck.
But Mjekula said Amanda had no obvious bullet or other wounds and a post-mortem would be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Nqabisa died from what appear to have been a self-inflicted shot to the head.
Amanda, from King William’s Town, lived in the Rosa Parks residence, which is close to Cullen Bowles.
Debra said when her phone rang soon after 8am yesterday, she thought it was her daughter calling because she was homesick. “When the person on the other side told me what had happened, my body went numb. I can barely recall what happened afterwards,” she said.
Amanda had returned to the Grahamstown campus last Sunday, having spent a week at home.
Debra said she had struggled to look at her daughter’s exposed “lifeless” body.
“Staff at the mortuary showed us where a bullet entered her body, just under her breast, and its exit point on her back. There were also marks and bruises under her neck,” she said.
Debra, a housewife, is raising Amanda’s young son.
She said soon after her daugh-
When the person told me what happened, my body went numb
ter told her she was pregnant, the family had encouraged her to continue her studies. Amanda had a scholarship from the university.
Debra said her husband, Tallie, and their other daughters, Maria, 19, and Talina, 17, were devastated and emotional.
“We’re still in shock . . . we had to drive to Grahamstown to identify the body . . . we haven’t had time to even grieve,” she said.
With her voice cracking, Debra described Amanda as a loving and caring daughter who enjoyed spending time with her family and son.
Debra said Nqabisa had been Amanda’s boyfriend. She said he had recently lost his job as a security guard in Stutterheim. “We knew him but I would not say we were close to him.”
Debra said she had not been aware of any problems in the couple’s relationship.
The dean of students at Rhodes, Vivian de Klerk, yesterday posted news of the deaths on her Facebook page. She said that students at Rosa Parks and Cullen Bowles had received counselling.
By mid-morning, shocked students were still milling around Cullen Bowles.
“I can’t believe it happened here,” said one student from Cullen Bowles who did not want to be named. “We have always felt safe in res.”
Cullen Bowles warden Johan Botha said the residence had “excellent” safety measures in place, including a fingerprint scanner to control access.
He could not immediately explain how an outsider had gained entry, but said this would form part of the investigation. Botha said the campus protection unit had guards patrolling at all times.
Amanda’s death bears an uncanny resemblance to the 2003 murder of third-year Rhodes journalism student Tumi Manyadioane, 22.
Her former boyfriend, Joseph Makuvaro, stabbed her to death in her room in a university residence. He was found lying unconscious next to her with what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds to the neck and stomach.
About a month later he killed himself by throwing himself under a train on the tracks outside Grahamstown.