The daughter of jazz musician McCoy Mrubata was found brutally murdered in a field in Cape Town, the Star reported on Monday.
Police spokesperson Bernadine Steyn said Nonceba Mzondo (22) was found near her Gugulethu home on Sunday morning with several wounds to her head. Her eyes had also been gouged out.
A postmortem will be conducted to determine the cause of death and whether the woman had been raped, she said.
Mzondo’s mother, Thobeka, told the paper she was surprised when a friend broke the sad news to her because she was under the impression her daughter was asleep in her bedroom.
She said when Mrubata was told what had happened to his daughter he ”just couldn’t handle it, he was so traumatised”.
It appears Mzondo had gone out looking for a group of friends, who had been at her home earlier in the evening, at around 2am on Saturday and did not return home. She had also taken her dog with her.
Mzondo’s body was discovered in the field on Sunday morning and the dog’s battered body was found next to her.
Carrie Shelver of People Opposing Women Abuse said the brutal act was further proof that the government needed to be held accountable for violence against women and children.
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence was a tool being used to raise awareness, but Shelver said ”we clearly have a long way to go”.
Government officials in Cape Town as well as the Democratic Alliance (DA) expressed their shock at the incident.
The DA’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard blamed the city’s ”leadership vacuum” for the increase in violent crime. – Sapa