Ntwetle Sanelisiwe Sibiya is dead.
The 25-year-old woman from Pietermaritzburg died before she could escape from a dangerous and abusive relationship in the city of gold – Johannesburg.
Last month, Ntwetle who lived in a complex in Riversands, reported her boyfriend – Ziphozethu Shange – to the police after he battered her and left her with bruises.
Within weeks of making the report, Ntwetle was found dead.
Her distraught sister, Zinhle Tenza, on Tuesday, told The Bulrushes how their family had hoped Ntwetle would leave her abusive relationship and return to their home in Pietermaritzburg.
Zinhle spent most of Tuesday trying to arrange for her sister’s body to be taken back home.
Recounting events leading to the tragedy, Zinhle said on Friday her sister’s boyfriend, Shange, called an ambulance to their complex.
“He gave the right complex name, but the wrong apartment number,” said Zinhle.
When the ambulance arrived paramedics could not locate the person who called for help.
The ambulance was already at the complex when Shange called the security office to give them his apartment number. Inexplicably, Shange again gave the wrong unit number.
“The security officer on duty then went to the block to look around while the ambulance was driving around the complex looking for the correct unit,” said Zinhle.
“Fortunately the security officer was already aware that my sister was in an abusive relationship. So he went to Ntwetle’s unit and knocked on the door.”
Much to the security officer’s horror, when he opened the door Ntwetle was lying on the floor next to a couch.
He could see there was something wrong with her.
“Can you believe her boyfriend Shange was busy playing a game on his PlayStation while Ntwetle lay there dead?” lamented Zinhle.
She had stab wounds and bruises all over her body.
It was around 10:00 when the shocked security officer ran after the ambulance that had been driving around the complex.
“When the security came back with the paramedics the body had been moved to the bathroom, where it was found covered,” said Zinhle.
When the police arrived they noticed the floor had been mopped, but there were noticeable traces of blood on the couch and floor.
“The police looked around and found bloodied towels in a huge bin outside the apartment,” recalled Zinhle.
Police also found bloodied pillows and a duvet hidden in the closet.
The police arrested Shange, who is also from Pietermaritzburg, and held him over the weekend.
Shange appeared in court on Monday facing a charge of murder.
He will remain behind bars until 22 February, when he will get an opportunity to apply for bail.
“Today, the post-mortem came back, and the cause of death was multiple injuries,” said Zinhle on Tuesday night.
All the family wants is justice for Ntwetle, whose young life was unfairly cut short allegedly by Shange – the person she would have shared Valentine’s Day with.
Last year in April, the M&G reported on South Africa’s femicide scourge, saying between 2015 and 2020 some 13 815 women over the age of 18 were murdered.
