10 years not enough – Katlehong family of murdered woman

The Mdluli family from Ext 2, Moleleko Section, is still recovering after losing their then 33-year-old daughter, Hlengiwe Zanele Mdluli, who was strangled to death by her boyfriend, Mazwi Joseph Mdalose, now 35, on September 25, 2021.

The family – mother Agnes (74), uncle Zweli (43), grandmother Christina Mdluli (76) – and other relatives only found out two weeks after her demise.

Christina was the first family member to arrive at the scene. She said on the day the news broke, she was sitting on the stoop at home with Mdluli’s three children. They wondered where Mdluli had gone when a neighbour’s child asked her to go to Mdalose’s shack.

“The child said Mdluli was found dead inside the shack, so I immediately went there,” said Christina before pausing for a few seconds to catch her breath as she broke down in tears.

“I found the police at the scene. They had already taken her out of the shack. Her lower body was half-naked, and she wore a T-shirt and jersey on her upper body and shoes on her feet. Her body was decomposed.”

She was able to identify Mdluli by the jersey and the shoes.

“After witnessing my grandchild in that state, I was never the same again. I am not alright because even when I went to the mortuary, they could not allow us to prepare her body for burial. They took the clothes and told us they would prepare everything because of the state of the body.”

The family said Mdalose is not the father of Mdluli’s children and that the pair’s relationship was unknown to them.

Zweli said they assumed the two met at the tavern that night because, according to some of Mdluli’s friends, Mdalose was buying the alcohol.

“Maybe he later tried to propose to her because, at taverns, some people are not straightforward. They start by buying alcohol, and after they consume it, they demand something in return.

“If you do not agree with them, they confront you, whereas they volunteered to entertain the ladies by buying alcohol for them under the assumption that the lady would leave with them. Maybe that is where the situation changed because he was probably forcing her to leave with him,” he said.

He described his late niece as a bubbly person who loved going out, but, at times, she would disappear for days with her friends.

“I am her uncle, but from a distance, you would assume we were friends. We enjoyed drinking together and chatting. She was funny and a people person. That is why when she went out for amusement, we knew that she would return.”

Her passing has left her three children, two boys aged three and 11 and a 13-year-old girl, without a mother.
The family said they know that even if Mdalose could have received a harsher sentence, it would not bring back their loved one, but the 10-year sentence is not enough.

“It means he will only serve three to five years before he will be eligible for parole, and we will see him roaming the streets.

“How safe will we be as a family, including her children? He will return to this community because the stand belongs to his family,” he noted.

He said the family had lost hope and that the South African justice system is disappointing.

“There are people who commit serious crimes like this one. When we found the body, we could not even prepare for her send-off according to our cultural customs.”

A close neighbour, Anna Matilamela (74), said they miss Mdluli’s positive energy.

“She was a welcoming person, always happy and laughing. When she came home from wherever she’d been, she would find me sitting with her mother, and the first thing she would do was make us tea. We did not expect what happened,” said Matilamela.

She said Mduli hardly ever left a message when she went out.

“On the day she disappeared, she was coming from church. When she left, she only said she would return but did not mention where she was going.

“This whole thing affected her children badly. At the time, the youngest was 19 months old, and he still points at her mother’s photograph on the sitting room wall and cries,” said Matilamela.

The family said they expected the perpetrator to get at least 15 or more years.

Mdalose was convicted and sentenced to 10 years on December 7 after pleading guilty at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court.

The investigating officer, Warrant Officer Muzi Mkhize from Katlehong North SAPS, said he also expected a harsher sentence.

However, because the accused pleaded guilty, showed remorse and did not waste the court’s time and state resources, his sentence was reduced.

According to Mkhize, the couple had just returned from a tavern where they had a fallout after Mdluli’s friend revealed that the child the couple was raising together was not Mdalose’s biological child.

After arriving home early on September 25, 2021, Mdalose confronted her, and she confirmed it as fact.

A fight broke out, and he strangled her to death and locked her body inside before fleeing to the Eastern Cape.

He confessed to his mother on October 15, 2021, and her mother reported the matter to the Engcobo SAPS. The information was shared with the Katlehong police, and Mdluli’s body was recovered.

Mkhize said the Engcobo SAPS found Mdalose with an unlicensed firearm, for which he must still account.

The Katlehong Green Door ambassador, Gugu Mofokeng, is arranging trauma counselling for the family.