A stabbing spree last weekend brought tragedy to a Grahamstown family, leaving one man dead and three other people injured and facing potential disfigurement from scarring.
A stabbing spree last weekend brought tragedy to a Grahamstown family, leaving one man dead and three other people injured and facing potential disfigurement from scarring.
A 26-year-old man stormed into the Extension 9 home of a family preparing for a traditional ceremony on the night of Saturday 4 October, looking for his girlfriend. Family member Mbuleli Kweta, 26, had just arrived in Grahamstown hours earlier to attend the ceremony in Ngcungcu Street, Extension 9. His brother Mnyamezeli, 41, had arrived a day earlier.
The family said the man arrived at the house armed with a brick and a knife. He was looking for his girlfriend who stays in the house, but she was not there when he arrived. When Grocott's Mail arrived at the scene on Saturday evening Mbuleli Kweta's lifeless body lay at the back of the house while his cousins frantically called neighbours and emergency services.
Community members had gathered around the house in shock trying to establish what had happened. In an interview with Grocott's Mail on Tuesday, Kweta's cousin Nomaphelo Mnqanqeni relieved the horrific ordeal.
Mnqanqeni said the man who is known to the family came rushing through the door about 9pm demanding to see his girlfriend, Dolly. However, Dolly had already left and was in the man's room when he came looking for her. Mnqanqeni was with Kweta and other relatives when the man arrived at the house.
"My cousin [Kweta] asked him why he entered the house in that manner," she said. "What are you going to do about that?" he asked, but before Kweta could answer the man stabbed him once in the chest.
"We initially thought he had hit him with a fist, but it turned out he had stabbed him and he [Kweta] collapsed at the back of the house as he tried to wake up one of my brothers who was sleeping in the back rooms," Mnqanqeni said.
She said they kept trying to explain that Dolly wasn't there, but that just made him more aggressive. Mnqanqeni, with stitches visible on her cheek, said he also stabbed Kweta's older brother Mnyamezeli across the face just below the eyes. They had both gone to Mnqanqeni's home in Nkomo Street to sleep because there wasn't enough space at the other house.
The man, whose name is known to Grocott's Mail, also made off with a cellphone, according to Mnqanqeni. His reign of terror apparently did not end with Mnqanqeni's family. He later stabbed a fourth man in Extension 4 on his way home to Extension 6, according to Mqanqeni.
Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said police have arrested the man and he appeared in court this week. She said the man arrived at the house and said he was looking for his girlfriend and he was told that she was not there.
"The suspect then stabbed the deceased in the chest and the deceased ran out of the front door. The suspect then stabbed two other persons on their faces who were also in the house. They then found the deceased lying at the back of the house in the yard," Govender said. Govender said Kweta sustained a stab wound on the chest.
Police are investigating a case of murder and two counts attempted murder. The date of the funeral was not yet set, however, Kweta's funeral will be held in his Extension 7 home.
Police are investigating a case of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm with regards to the stabbing of the man from Extension 4.
Govender said the complainant was sleeping at home with his girlfriend when he heard someone knocking on the door and asked who was it and the person replied by saying his first name.
The suspect asked the complainant where his girlfriend. The response, "Why would you come and look for your girlfriend here?" apparently further angered the suspect, according to police. Govender said that man sustained knife wounds to his head and back.
"After that he fled," she said.
