Missing councillor’s body found in mortuary
He was a PR councillor in Umdoni Local Municipality.
The body of Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) councillor, Qedukwazi Mzimela, who went missing recently, was found in a mortuary in Durban on Monday morning last week.
Mzimela (35), who was also an Inyanga, together with his two friends, Phumlani Mbutho and Senzo Ngema, who were also found dead, had taken a journey from his homestead in Emalangeni near Umzinto, to Mhlanga near Durban where he was meant to heal a client.
He was a PR councillor in Umdoni Local Municipality.
KZN provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nqobile Gwala said three cases of murder are being investigated.
“Police at Sydenham are investigating three counts of murder after two men were found with gunshot wounds in Umgeni Road on March 16. The next day, the body of a third man, also with a gunshot wound, was found in the same area,” she said.
According to Mzimela’s aunt, Thoko Mzimela, he would usually take trips to heal people and would return safely.
She said the three had borrowed a vehicle, and the owner later received an alert from a tracking company indicating that the tracker had been tampered with.
“We called him on his cellphone, but it was switched off. That is when we started to panic. We worried the entire weekend and could not reach the tracking company. On Monday, we started searching mortuaries around Durban,” she said.
She added that they started at the Phoenix mortuary. “We discovered his corpse and that of his friends’. We were told by the cops that his friends’ bodies were found by passersby on the roadside on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, his body was found not far from where his friends’ bodies were found,” she said.
Meanwhile, ABC said it is saddened by this incident. In a statement released on Monday, it said words cannot describe their loss. It said the three were abducted and brutally murdered.
“Cllr Qedukwazi Mzimela, Phumlani Mbutho and Senzo Ngema were members of the ABC who shall always be remembered for their diligent activism and servant leadership. The ABC extends its heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and fellow members,” said the statement.
Attempts to get comment from family members of Mbutho and Ngema were unsuccessful.
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