DURBAN - A friend who saw Zolile Khumalo 15 minutes before she was shot and killed in her room at a Mangosuthu University Of Technology (MUT) off-campus residency says had Khumalo not said she was studying, he too would have been in her room with her at the time she was killed.
The student, who asked not be named out of fear, described the sequence of events leading up to him not being with Khumalo as his “ancestors looking out for him”.
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Khumalo, 21, was a first year quantity surveying student at MUT. She was allegedly shot dead by her ex-boyfriend Thabani Mzolo at the Lonsdale residence after the couple had broken up.
Zolile Khumalo, 21, whose murder has left university students angry and devastated.
Mzolo is expected to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s court on Thursday.
Reliving the fatal events of May 1, the day Khumalo was killed, the friend said he had not seen Khumalo for two weeks before bumping into her at the ground floor at their South Beach residence.
“She had been walking some friends out and we spoke. I said I would come to her room for a visit when she was back but she said she wanted to study so I didn’t go,” he said.
Describing the day of the shooting, the friend explained that Khumalo’s room was on the first floor of the block of flats and he had been glad to see her after a while.
A placard demanding justice for Zolile Khumalo outside the magistrate's court. Picture Thobeka Ngema.
He says students from the Kings student residence across their building could see someone from the first floor window and it looked like that person was trying to jump out the window. That person, he said, appeared to be Khumalo.
“I was with another friend of mine in a room on the seventh floor and from the window we could see people from the residency across from ours looking out their windows, at first we didn’t pay attention. Then we could hear them counting down, 5,4,3,2,1,” he said.
“It was not until we could hear that people from our building were swearing at those from across that we decided to go outside to see what was going on. When we got to the ground floor there were police and paramedics in the foyer and when we asked the security, he told us someone had been shot”.
He said when he found out that it was Khumalo who had been shot, he was devastated but he never imagined that she was actually dead.
“At first I thought she was injured, I saw the paramedics going inside with a stretcher but when they came back out with no one on it - I knew that my friend was gone”.
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On Thursday, students are expected to march to the Durban Magistrate’s Court where Mzolo will be making his second appearance. They are calling for Mzolo to be denied bail.
Higher Education deputy minister Bongani Mkongi is expected to be present in court to accept a memorandum from students.
Thabani Mzolo made his first appearance at the Durban Magistrate's Court and grinned repeatedly. Picture: Sibusiso Ndlovu / African News Agency / ANA
Thabani Mzolo appeared happy in court as he smiled and made trigger-gestures when leaving the courtroom. Picture: Karinda Jagmohan / Sunday Tribune
Later on Thursday, the university will hold a memorial service for Khumalo at it's Umlazi campus.
Khumalo will be then laid to rest back home in eShowe on Saturday.