Owen Ndlovu, 54, found shot dead in Thokoza after Katlehong hijacking
The former SABC sports presenter was taken outside a Katlehong church on Tuesday night and found by residents the next morning, as police hunt three suspects.
Owen Ndlovu, the former SABC sports presenter and music rights activist, was found dead in Thokoza on Wednesday morning, hours after he was hijacked and kidnapped outside a church in Katlehong on Gauteng’s East Rand. He was 54.
As The Citizen reported on 16 September, Ndlovu was taken at about 8pm on Tuesday, 15 September, while he waited for his wife outside the church, and his body was found the following morning.
What police say happened
Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuluwi said Ndlovu’s wife was walking towards their vehicle when three men, one of them armed, pushed her aside and forced him into the back seat of his Ford Raptor. They drove off in the vehicle.
The bakkie was later found abandoned in Walkerville, Nevhuluwi said. A manhunt for the three suspects is under way.
Ndlovu’s body was found by residents in Thokoza on Wednesday morning. Family spokesperson Eugene Mthethwa said the residents who found him reported that he had gunshot wounds, and that his bag was lying a few metres from where his body was discovered. His wife, Portia Ndlovu, identified his body at the mortuary.
“At this stage, the family is awaiting further information from the relevant authorities regarding the circumstances surrounding Owen’s death,” Mthethwa said. He thanked the residents who found Ndlovu and everyone who joined the search, and asked for privacy.
A hijacking on a Tuesday night in Katlehong
Ndlovu’s death belongs to a pattern Gauteng drivers know well. Vehicle hijackings in the province are concentrated in the evening hours and on the routes between the East Rand townships and the industrial belt around them, and a bakkie is a target because it can be stripped or moved across a border within hours.
What makes this case different is where it started. Ndlovu was not flagged down at an intersection or followed from a filling station. He was taken from outside a church, in front of his wife, in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday evening. That is the detail that has travelled furthest among the people who knew his work.
For a family in Katlehong, the practical consequence is now a set of administrative steps that run alongside the grief. A body has to be released by the state mortuary, an inquest docket has to be opened and a case number has to be carried to the police station for every document that follows. Families in this position routinely wait weeks for a death certificate, and the funeral cannot be arranged without it.
The state’s response
Gauteng police have opened a case and are appealing to the public for help in identifying and arresting the suspects. Anyone with information has been asked to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111, or to submit an anonymous tip through the MySaps app.
The SAPS provincial head office has not yet said whether a dedicated task team has been assigned to the case. The Enquirer has asked Colonel Nevhuluwi for the case number, the charges registered and the status of the manhunt, and will report the answers.
Who Owen Ndlovu was
Ndlovu spent years in the SABC sports newsroom, where he became a familiar voice to listeners and viewers across the country. In recent years he worked in music rights, the unglamorous end of the industry that determines whether a South African musician is paid when their song is played on radio or streamed abroad. It is slow, technical work that happens in committee rooms, and it is the work that decides whether a session player in Soweto sees money at the end of the quarter.
His death has been met with condolences from colleagues in broadcasting and from figures in the music industry, many of whom worked with him on royalty and licensing questions.
What happens next
Ndlovu’s body remains at the state mortuary pending the family’s arrangements. Police have asked anyone who saw the vehicle between Katlehong and Walkerville on Tuesday night, or who has information on the three men, to come forward on Crime Stop or through the MySaps app.
Source: The Citizen, Former SABC presenter Owen Ndlovu found dead days after Katlehong hijacking
