Delft woman, 56, dies after being held in Samora Machel house

A 56-year-old woman from Delft who left home for work and did not come back was found tied up in a house in Samora Machel, and died in hospital three days later of multiple head injuries.

Nomakhwezi Zitha was found on September 11 during an operation by members attached to Operation Prosper in the Thabo Mbeki informal settlement. She was taken to hospital for treatment and died on September 14.

As IOL reported on September 17, the case began as a kidnapping complaint in Delft and has since been converted to a murder docket.

How the case moved

Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said Nyanga police first registered cases of kidnapping, theft and attempted murder after the operation. The victim had been kidnapped in Delft and held against her will at a premises in the area, he said.

Police established that an undisclosed amount of money had been taken from her bank account while she was being held.

A hospital notice was circulated after she was found, appealing for relatives to come forward because staff were trying to locate her family.

Van Wyk said the case was changed to murder after Zitha died as a result of multiple head injuries.

A suspect was arrested and appeared in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on the same day she died. The case was postponed to September 17 for further investigation. According to police, the accused faces charges of murder, kidnapping and rape and will remain in custody until a formal bail application is brought.

Police said no further information would be released at this stage because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

What the docket still has to establish

Several things are not yet on the record. Police have not said how many people they believe were involved, whether they are looking for anyone else, or what connection, if any, exists between the accused and the deceased. The circumstances in which the money was withdrawn from her account have not been set out.

The case is now before the courts, and the detail that will decide it will be led there, not in public statements. That is the ordinary course for a matter of this kind, and it is the reason the police have said so little.

What the case has already produced

The arrest came out of Operation Prosper, a police operation in the Thabo Mbeki informal settlement that put members on the ground in the area where Zitha was found. The sequence matters for anyone living in Delft or Samora Machel: a complaint opened in one policing precinct was acted on in another, and a person who would otherwise have remained unaccounted for was found and taken to hospital.

The conversion of the docket from attempted murder to murder, the arrest and the first court appearance all followed within days of her death.

The court date to watch

The accused remains in custody. The matter returns to the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on September 17, where the investigation is expected to be taken further and a bail application may be set down.