Buyiswa Solontsi is still struggling to sleep at night after finding her 56-year-old cousin’s dismembered body in a chest freezer in Samora Machel.
Busisiwe Mthethwa’s family reported her missing after hearing that her boyfriend had allegedly been seen selling her possessions.
Then, on Saturday night December 30, Ms Solontsi and her partner, accompanied by police officers, visited Ms Mthethwa’s Jeff Masemola Street home, where, according to Ms Solontsi, they found her cousin’s boyfriend returning from a nearby tavern.
She said he had been evasive about Ms Mthethwa’s whereabouts before claiming she was visiting a friend.
Inside the house, they had noticed a freezer with a lot of things stacked on top of it. The boyfriend had been reluctant to open it, but when it was eventually opened, Ms Solontsi was not prepared for the gruesome sight that confronted her.
“I fainted and I screamed and could not see anything else. But there was blood in that fridge, and there was a knife on top of the table which had blood, and I suspect he might have used it.“
She said the boyfriend had told neighbours that Ms Mthethwa had gone to the Eastern Cape.
“We knew that was a lie because she would have never travelled without telling us.
“When we arrived at the house, he was shocked to see us with police officers, and from there, I knew that there was something wrong, and when we checked the house, it was ransacked.
“I have no idea why he would kill her like that. The question that we ask ourselves is what did she do to die like that?
“There was also a hammer, which had blood all over it. I’m so traumatised, and I cannot sleep at night because of what I saw.”
Ms Solontsi described her cousin as a loving and caring person who loved her family dearly.
Provincial police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk confirmed that a 45-year-old man had been arrested on a charge of murder. He appeared in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, and the case was postponed to Thursday next week. The accused was remanded.
