A former Blue Bulls rugby player is in police custody in connection with the murders of at least three men, including the decapitation of one.
A would-be victim who narrowly escaped an axe-wielding man during a two-week rampage, said he had been told by the axeman he was avenging the rape of his daughter. He is one of two people who have survived attacks by the axe-wielding man.
The suspect’s identity is known to the Daily News, but to protect his daughter, his name is being withheld.
Bodies were found in Yellowwood Park, Lamontville and Umbilo - one had been decapitated and others were hacked on the neck.
In an early morning raid on Tuesday on a Yellowwood Park house in which the man was living, officers from Montclair and Brighton Beach found items allegedly linked to the murders.
An axe about 40cm-long and bloodied clothing thought to have belonged to one of the victims was found, said police spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Mdunge.
“It is very possible he used the same axe to kill his victims,” he said.
It is believed the suspect, 34, is from the Eastern Cape, and was visiting relatives in Durban.
Target
Lamontville resident Khangelani Mdluli, 27, who is believed to have been the axeman’s first target, said yesterday he was uneasy despite his attacker’s arrest.
“The incident has really affected me. I don’t feel at ease when I am working night shift and have to walk home. I am scared and I don’t feel safe,” he said.
Mdluli had been walking in Road One, Lamontville, last Tuesday when a silver-grey Peugeot with an Eastern Cape number plate slowly drove past him.
The driver turned into a driveway, executed a three-point turn and drove up behind Mdluli.
“He stopped the car, jumped out with an orange plastic bag and walked down the road towards me. I continued walking but I looked at the plastic bag and I thought it was a gun.
He said to me: “Did you know that we would meet?”
Confused, Mdluli asked the man who he was, and he had responded by saying he had raped his daughter: “You think I’m stupid. You infected my daughter with HIV.”
Mdluli asked the man - who was looking agitated - who his daughter was, but the man pulled an axe out of the bag with his left hand.
“As the axe came down towards my head, I ducked and it scratched my stomach. I started running down the road while he followed me and swore at me. He eventually gave up and turned back to head to his car that was parked up the road.”
Just when Mdluli thought he was safe, he spotted the man driving along another road in the area.
“We both looked at each other. I ran back and looked for back routes to get home, making it difficult for him to follow me because he was driving. I went straight home and got into bed.”
When he approached his family the next day to tell them about the incident, they told him that another man from the area, Ndodo Hlongwa, had been decapitated in a similar attack.
Hlongwa’s head was found in a bin in Himalaya Road, Merebank.
“I told them what had happened to me and they thought it must have been the same man I had crossed paths with, who had tried to aim for my head the night before,” Mdluli said.
“I immediately reported the matter to the police.”
Mdunge said the man would be charged with three counts of murder with aggravating circumstances and one case of attempted murder.
The man is expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Thursday morning. - Daily News