An angry community has accused the grandmother of supposed kidnapping victim Ntomboxolo “Lele” Bashe of hiding Bashe’s whereabouts from the police. Bashe who was presumed murdered was discovered hiding out with her boyfriend in Port Elizabeth.
An angry community has accused the grandmother of supposed kidnapping victim Ntomboxolo “Lele” Bashe of hiding Bashe’s whereabouts from the police. Bashe who was presumed murdered was discovered hiding out with her boyfriend in Port Elizabeth.
Bashe went missing after she had been sent on an errand to an Extension 7 spaza shop. Two weeks later, her grandmother, Nokhululekile Mtwa reported her as missing to the police and an extensive police search was carried out, which included a combing of the area with the help of police rescue dogs.
Mtwa also said that the family themselves had conducted a search for Bashe. Her grandfather had gone to Port Elizabeth but could not find her.
Police said it was thought that Bashe had been raped and killed and her body left near the old Power Station in Extension 7.
Mtwa, who assumed that Bashe was dead, said that it was unfair for people to gossip and accuse her of lying about her grand-daughter’s whereabouts.
“How could I hide the whereabouts of Lele if I knew that there were police from different districts searching for her? How could I cause so much damage?” said Mtwa.
When Bashe was escorted home by two police officers Mtwa was equally shocked and ecstatic to the core.
“When I looked at her after she came in and sat on the couch, I started shaking and I wanted to cry,” said the 58-year-old grandmother. She could not believe that the person whom she had feared to be dead was alive and sitting in front of her.
It turned out that Bashe had eloped and had been living in Port Elizabeth with her boyfriend.
Vigilante justice
Mtwa said that the three male suspects, Phikisile Demele, Sabelo Mancam and Siyazi Ngojo, came to her house shortly after Bashe went missing and hinted that they knew where Bashe was. The same men were later arrested on suspicion of Bashe’s murder. Some Extension 7 residents who believed that the men may have killed Bashe, burnt down the house of one of the suspects – Dimele.
Mtwa insists that she did not tell the residents to burn down the Demele’s house. “The law took its course when they were arrested and the law will take its course now,” she stated.
Bashe has laid charges of rape against the three men.
