Durban - IT WAS a weekend of mourning in KwaZulu-Natal with seven funerals held in different parts of the province on Saturday.
Two of three Newlands East Secondary pupils, Ayanda Mtshali, 14, Tina Ngiba, 13, and Luyanda Ngubane, 13, who were mowed down by a driver last week, were buried. Tina was buried in Ntuzuma cemetery and Luyanda was laid to rest in Clairwood cemetery,while Ayanda’s funeral will be held in Richards Bay on Sunday.
eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede was among the scores of mourners at the joint funeral service at the school.
Taxi driver Siboniso Zwane, 33, was charged with culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving. He allegedly drove through a red traffic light. He was granted R3000 bail in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
In KwaMashu, hundreds of mourners filled the Universal Church for the funeral service of Queen Nyuswa, 50, who was killed in her crèche in the Durban CBD last Saturday. She was stabbed multiple times and bitten.
Children cried as her coffin entered the church. Her family and friends described Nyuswa as a “good Samaritan” who had dedicated her life to helping people.
She was laid to rest at Red Hill Cemetery.
At Highflats on the South Coast, hundreds of mourners gathered at the family home for the funeral of Durban magistrate Bongekile Angeline Tenza, 42, and her three children, Thabiso Tenza, 16, Fezeka Tenza, 10, and Khwezi Tenza, seven.
Tenza and her children were shot dead by her husband, interpreter Sandile Mkhize, 40, who then shot himself.
Mkhize was buried at his home in KwaDukuza.
In Ixopo, Berine Haines, the Phoenix nurse shot by her husband, Zane Smith, was laid to rest in her hometown. Smith, who then shot himself, was buried on Monday.
Haines, 34, a nurse at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, was shot in Palmview on Sunday. The couple’s children, aged seven and two, were at home at the time but were unhurt.