Cape Town - A 44-year-old man has handed himself over to the police in what the community of N2 in Delft South said was his fear of the wrath of the community, after he allegedly killed his girlfriend.
Zodidi Zonke, 27, died after she was brutally assaulted, allegedly by her “abusive” boyfriend, on Saturday evening, leaving her two children aged 3 and 5, without a mother.
According to a neighbour, who is also close to the alleged perpetrator and who asked not to be named, the man woke up early on Sunday without saying a word and later returned with the police. The neighbour said they were shocked when police informed them that Zonke was dead.
The neighbour said when they entered the house, Zonke was lying naked on the bed. He said the man had seemingly dragged her from outside into an upstairs bedroom. Next to her was a broken broom and a plastic pick handle, the neighbour said.
Before Zonke’s death, community leader Frank Tshawe said the previous night they were called by another neighbour and Zonke’s uncle.
Tshawe said the man informed them that they saw Zonke naked and bruised and locked outside the boyfriend’s house.
He said when they found her, she was drunk, with a faint breath. She was taken into the house, on the ground floor. Zonke was not taken to the hospital as the man insisted that she was “just drunk”, Tshawe said.
Zonke’s father, Thandile Slange, said some of the community members witnessed the assault and failed to intervene. Slange said the man had on numerous occasions assaulted his daughter, describing their relationship as toxic.
“The community members had got used to the fights and they had stopped intervening, not knowing that this would eventually get her killed,” he said.
Slange said none of the family members were working, and that they had summoned the family of the alleged perpetrator to discuss burial arrangements.
Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said Delft police were investigating a case of murder after responding to a complaint on Sunday. On arrival in Stanley Street, the police found the body of a female who had sustained fatal injuries, with visible bruises to her body.
Swartbooi said the victim was declared deceased on the scene by medical personnel, adding that the motive for the attack was domestic violence.
Swartbooi said once the man is charged, he would appear in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court.