SABC sports broadcaster Owen Ndlovu, 54, found dead in Thokoza after Katlehong hijacking
Gauteng police are investigating how a man taken from his own vehicle in Katlehong on Tuesday night was found in the next town on Wednesday morning.
Owen Ndlovu, a former SABC sports presenter and commentator, was found dead in Thokoza on Wednesday morning, hours after armed men took him from his vehicle in Katlehong on Tuesday evening.
He was 54.
Ndlovu was collecting his wife, Portia, from a church service when the men approached them. He was forced into his Ford Raptor, which was then driven away, according to police information reported by SABC News and carried by Cape {town} ETC on 16 September. His wife was left behind.
The vehicle was later recovered in Walkerville. Reports indicate it had been stripped. Residents in Thokoza found Ndlovu’s body on Wednesday morning, and his wife identified him at the mortuary. Reports say he had sustained gunshot wounds.
His family confirmed his death on Wednesday and said they were waiting for more information from the investigation.
What the police have said, and what they have not
The South African Police Service is investigating the hijacking, the kidnapping and the killing. Investigators are working to establish what happened between the moment Ndlovu was taken in Katlehong and the discovery of his body in Thokoza, two towns on the East Rand about 20km apart.
Police have not said how many people were involved, whether anyone has been arrested, or whether the vehicle was stripped before or after the body was found. Those questions are part of the investigation.
A voice South Africans grew up with
Ndlovu was a familiar presence in South African football broadcasting. He worked as an SABC presenter and commentator, and his career extended into the music industry, where he was involved in artists’ rights activism.
News of his death drew an outpouring of grief from the public and from colleagues in broadcasting and sport, who remembered his contribution to the coverage of the local game.
What happens to a hijacking case in Gauteng
Hijacking is prosecuted as a serious offence, and where a victim is taken and later killed, the investigation falls to the police’s organised crime and serious violent crime units, working with the National Prosecuting Authority. A kidnapping charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years where aggravating circumstances are proved, and a murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence in cases of this kind.
That is the legal frame. The practical one is what happens on the ground in the first 48 hours, which is the period that decides most of these cases. Vehicle tracking, number plate recognition on the East Rand routes, and the recovery of the vehicle in Walkerville are all leads investigators will be working through.
The recovery of the vehicle is significant. Stripped vehicles are usually moved quickly, and the place where a vehicle is found frequently sits close to where the people who took it operate. Thokoza and Walkerville are both on routes out of Katlehong toward the eastern edge of Ekurhuleni.
What residents will notice
For people who drive the East Rand at night, the case is a reminder of a pattern they know well. Hijackings in Gauteng cluster around specific times and specific roads, and a church service ending after dark is exactly the kind of routine journey that puts a driver in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That does not make it the victim’s fault. It makes it a policing problem, and the police response is what the public will be watching.
The SAPS has the units, the vehicle recovery systems and the forensic capacity to work a case like this. What families of hijacking victims ask for, almost without exception, is speed: arrests, a court date, and a name to attach to the person who did it. The Katlehong and Thokoza stations, working with the provincial serious violent crime unit, now carry that responsibility.
What happens next
Investigators are still establishing the sequence of events between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Further details are expected as the case develops, and the family has said it is waiting for information from the police.
Owen Ndlovu is survived by his wife, Portia, and by a broadcasting career that South African football audiences will remember.
Source: Cape {town} ETC, Former SABC presenter Owen Ndlovu found dead after hijacking
