Durban - Tributes have poured in for Pietermaritzburg wellness businesswoman Kavitha Nerputh, 42, after the Northdale socialite was found alive, but with a weak pulse, in her Audi SUV in the city’s Alexandra Park on Monday night.
She died soon afterwards.
According to SAPS spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele, a murder case was opened at the Alexandra police station.
Nerputh was found inside her car with a cellphone charger cord around her neck. Her car was locked.
Reports of her cellphone being stolen could not be confirmed by police. The vehicle was found on a small dusty road that runs between a bicycle park and behind the Kershaw Park tennis stadium.
Nerputh was a mother of three who promoted and sold a weight-loss tea. She made newspaper headlines in 2017 for splurging R100 000 on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday party.
Media reports suggested that the socialite was being harassed by a former friend on social media and that she had secured a protection order against this person.
Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business chief executive Melanie Veness said the incident was “very peculiar” as the road that Nerputh was found on was known to be busy.
“Any taking of a life hits everyone. This is a horrible way to begin the year. The culprits must be brought to book,” she added.
On social media, Ami Gee posted: “This is just heartbreaking. RIP Beautiful Kavitha, spoke with her only briefly but she made an impact with her intelligence and warmth. She was stalked and hounded in life so much by sick people who made fake pages and said the most vicious and threatening things about her, and now she is dead. The culprits must be brought to justice.”
Viren Roopchund commented: “God speed. Hope the perpetrators are brought in front of the law and given the highest order of punishment for such a selfish and heinous act to a single mother who was the sole breadwinner in her family.”
No arrests have been made.
Nerputh was cremated on Tuesday afternoon at Cedar Ridge Crematorium in Cato Ridge.