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Daily Sun (August 6 2013) - ZANDILE heard the painful sobbing of her neighbour's son and went to investigate. She followed him to the corner of the neighbour's yard - but stopped when she recognised the clothes her daughter was wearing the night before.
SHE KNEW THE BROKEN, BATTERED AND ABUSED BODY IN THE GRASS WAS THAT OF HER DEAD DAUGHTER.
Fifteen-year-old Lungile Kubeka had been strangled and beaten. Her hands had been tied and she was probably raped.
Zandile Kubeka (44) from Snake Park, Soweto said: "My youngest daughter told me that my neighbour's son had asked if Lungile had slept at home. She said the neighbour's son had started crying when he heard Lungile had not come home."
Zandile said when she went outside, the son, Khanyisa Veca (32), told her Lungile was dead. She said Khanyisa showed her where the body was lying. "I couldn't go closer. I couldn't bear to see my daughter like that."
Zandile said they had run out of electricity on Sunday night at about 7pm and Lungile went to buy airtime at the spaza shop. "I started worrying when she didn't come back and we went to look for her but we couldn't find her," said Zandile.
Zandile said she was angry and thought she would punish the child when she came home. "I didn't sleep and prayed she would return back home safely," she said.
"I didn't know that she was fighting for her life while I sat and prayed." Lungile Kubeka (15) was a grade 9 pupil at the Sebetsa o thole Moputso Secondary School in Dobsonville, Soweto and she was dating a boy from the same school.
Zandile had told the family the boy was abusive. "She came home bruised three months ago saying her boyfriend had beaten her up," she said.
"I went with her to his house demanding answers. He told me he beat her because he loved her. He was laughing while we were talking to him." She said his parents offered her money to take her daughter to the doctor.
"But I refused and we left," said Zandile.
Neighbour Zonke Veca (53) told Daily Sun she was woken up by her son in the morning, who told her there was a body outside. "When we went outside we found it was Lungile," she said.
"She was like one of my children. I raised her and for me to see her like that hurt me." As the mortuary van was about to leave, Lungile's aunt, Ntombizodwa Khuzwayo asked to see the body.
Ntombizodwa said from what she saw of the child's body, her face was bruised and she had marks on her neck. "They strangled her. What they did to her is cruel," she said. "They dumped her body so that we could find it."
While the family was still trying to come to terms with the death of their loved one, the community of Snake Park block 10 went to the school to look for the boyfriend and his six friends. The police had to calm down the residents and took the boys out of school for safety reasons.
Soweto cop spokesman Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela confirmed that a murder case was opened. "She had bruises that show she was strangled. There is a possibility that she was raped and killed elsewhere before her body was dumped at here neighbour's place," he said. "No arrests have been made. We are investigating and hope to make an arrest soon."
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