Durban - Three days after she disappeared, Luyando Mhlongo’s family learnt that the 14-year-old had been raped and murdered in a sugar cane field on the outskirts of Eshowe, in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
The MEC for Education in the province, Mthandeni Dlungwana, visited Luyanda’s family on Thursday morning.
He told the media she had come home from school last Friday, changed and gone out to meet friends.
That was the last time her family saw her alive.
When she did not come home that evening, they started looking for her but to no avail. Then on Monday, they went to the local police station and it emerged that a group of children had come upon her half-naked body on Saturday.
Luyanda had been stabbed a number of times and strangled.
Dlungwana said her family was devastated.
He said in the last two months, one teacher and two pupils had been murdered in the province.
“These things happen on a societal level, so we are calling upon society to stand up, rise up, and fight social ills,” he said. “People must ensure they aren’t in the wrong place at the wrong time but society must also play their role. In a well-connected society, things like this don’t happen.”
He said his department was saddened by Luyanda’s death, in the wake of a spate of horrific crimes against girls and women around the country.
“This girl could have been something,” he said.
He said they would be liaising with the Department of Community Safety to intensify their campaigns and ensure those behind Luyando’s death were brought to justice.
Luyanda’s grandfather, Nkanyiso Mhlongo, said the family was shocked.
“We were fetched from far to be told that the child had died,” he said on Thursday.
Police had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.