Waitress Ayabonga Mjilo, 23, was allegedly strangled to death by restaurant manager Mfanafuthi Kuene after she was reported missing to police on Christmas Day last year
A restaurant boss invited a waitress back to his home for a drink before she went missing and was eventually found buried in his back garden.
Police in Umhlanga, a town in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, arrested Mfanafuthi Kuene, 37, after the body of waitress Ayabonga Mjilo was found at his home. The 23-year-old had been reported missing by her family on Christmas Day last year.
CCTV footage reportedly showed the two leaving the restaurant together shortly before her disappearance and her body was discovered once police identified that the man she left with was her old boss. Police said the manager strangled her to death after a heated argument at his residence.
Her body was recovered from a shallow grave on his property days later after an extensive search effort. Kunene faces charges of kidnapping, murder, and defeating the ends of justice, according to KZN police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda.
Kunene appeared before the Kanyamazane Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 6th January. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli, who attended the hearing, described the murder as tragic and devastating.
He said: “On behalf of the KwaZulu-Natal Government, I extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of Ayabonga Mjilo. Losing a young woman in such a brutal manner is a devastating tragedy.”
He added that the killing highlighted the ongoing fight against gender-based violence. “I commend the SAPS for their tireless efforts and urge the judiciary to impose the harshest possible punishment for such heinous crimes. KwaZulu-Natal has no place for individuals who commit these atrocities.”
Inanda, the township south of Durban where Ayabonga’s body was found, is known as the country’s rape and murder capital. The killing also adds to a string of violent crimes against women during the festive season.
It follows a separate case where Lawrence Sibusiso Ntaka, an uMzinto native, posted a video on social media confessing to killing his girlfriend before taking his own life.
South Africa faces significant challenges in curbing femicide, the murder of women, where 44 per cent of all cases result in police failing to identify a perpetrator, according to a November United Nations report. In May last year, the South African President signed a bill to establish the National Council on Gender-based Violence and Femicide that will oversee the implementation of programmes aiming to end femicide in the country.
