Durban - More than a month after the remains of a KwaNdengezi woman were found, her family has yet to bury her because her head is still missing.
Sanelisiwe Mkhize’s dismembered and burnt body was found in thick bushes in Chesterville.
She was nine months pregnant when she went missing on February 20.
On April 4, her boyfriend, Lwazi Gumede, was arrested and charged with her murder.
On the day of his arrest, Gumede identified what was believed to be the 22-year-old woman’s partial remains near Road 25 in Chesterville.
Her head and the child she had been carrying have not been found.
On Tuesday, Mkhize’s grandmother, Vivi Ngcobo, could not contain her emotions as the 24-year-old Gumede stood before the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
“My boy, you would be doing us all a huge favour if you told us where the head is,” she shouted, before storming out of the packed courtroom and banging the door shut.
The case was then transferred to a regional court in the same building.
When Gumede appeared in court in April, he said that he planned on pleading not guilty, and would be applying for bail.
At the regional court on Tuesday, Mkhize’s grandmother fainted and had to be taken outside, where she began weeping.
Gumede was brought to the dock, where he abandoned his bail application.
“I did it, I know the charge,” Gumede told the court.
Speaking to the Daily News outside court, Mkhize’s older sister, Lungile Mkhize, 34, said:
“When he (Gumede) pointed out where the body was to police, he never denied killing my sister, so now that he has told the court this, it makes no difference to me.”
“If he has kept quiet for this long, not saying where the head is, he could very well remain quiet until he is sentenced and goes to jail,” she added.
She said the family hoped that somehow police would be able to find Mkhize’s head soon.
“At the moment my sister’s remains are in Pretoria for DNA testing, and we are still not sure as a family what we are going to do when her remains are brought back home and the head is still missing,” she said.
Daily News