Gasa killing suspect ‘secretive’
The nature of the relationship between rich businessman Nhlanhla Gasa and the man charged with his murder, waiter Mbulelo Arthur Ntlauzana, remains a mystery. Amanda Khoza and Mervyn Naidoo report
MBULELO Arthur Ntlauzana, 25, from Thembeni in KwaDukuza, has been described as a quiet, secretive person who had a weakness for women.
If that’s the case, what was the nature of the relationship between Ntlauzana and Nhlanhla Gasa, a tycoon with upper-echelon business and political connections and father of celebrity daughters?
Were they in a secret sexual relationship that no one else knew about? Or did Gasa violate Ntlauzana’s friendship on March 26 when he allegedly tried to kiss him, resulting in Ntlauzana allegedly stabbing Gasa to death?
Ntlauzana, who is in custody, is expected to set out this week what really happened between him and Gasa.
Ntlauzana’s grandmother, Gogo Mtolo, wants nothing to do with him. She is still battling to come to terms with the fact that the boy she raised is now charged with murder.
“I am shocked [at the notion] that he is capable of murdering someone. He does not drink or smoke and is not a violent person,” she said while taking down clothes from the washing line outside her home in Thembeni, Groutville.
The elderly woman described her grandson as an obedient boy who loved soccer while growing up. He went to Groutville High School but dropped out in Grade 12.
“I won’t go to court because I don’t want to hear how he killed that man. This is not the boy I raised,” she said.
The family came from the Eastern Cape to Durban years ago, seeking work. “His mother is a domestic worker. She is not taking it well.”
Ntlauzana allegedly told his sister the businessman made sexual advances towards him.
Ntlauzana has three children with two women.
When police arrested him last Saturday, he was at Dolley Mpanza’s home, the mother of two of his children.
Attempts to speak Mpanza did not succeed.
Nozipho Ngwenya, 27, is the mother of his youngest child. The couple met at the fast food outlet where they worked.
Ngwenya said she last saw Ntlauzana on March 23, the day before the crime.
“We had a fight and I told him to leave. He was very secretive. He always hid his phone under the pillow and it was always on silent and we fought about it because I didn’t know what he was hiding.”
She said she was shocked to read in newspapers that he had been linked to such a heinous crime.
“He wasn’t very ambitious. He told me he wanted to be a bodyguard and do a shooting course,” said Ngwenya.
“I don’t know if Mbulelo was gay. I don’t know what to believe anymore because he was so secretive,” she said.
The manager of a popular fast food outlet where Ntlauzana worked as a waiter for a year described him as a “womaniser”.
“He was a very quiet guy. He liked the female customers a lot. He was over-friendly with them. He didn’t come across as gay. Maybe he had a secret life, which nobody knew about.”
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