The South African Police Service (SAPS) has asked Nomsa Tshuma, the widow of Elvis Nyathi, to return to South Africa to identify her husband’s suspected killers at an identification parade.
Nyathi was brutally murdered by an anti-immigrant vigilante group in Diepsloot, a slum area north of Johannesburg last month.
Seven of the fourteen men who were initially arrested in connection with the murder appeared at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court in South Africa two weeks ago.
The other seven suspects were released after police could not find conclusive evidence linking them to the crime.
The seven are facing charges to do with murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and extortion.
An MRP delegation who met with Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa, David Hamadziripi in Pretoria revealed that Tshuma was needed in South Africa.
MRP National Spokesperson, Velile Moyo, told CITE that they had asked Hamadziripi and the Government to be involved in the process so that Tshuma’s safety was guaranteed. Said Moyo:
She is still there in Zimbabwe but when the suspects were arrested by the police there was a need for identification or a parade to prove that they are the ones that did that so.
After the identification, they then take her back again to Beitbridge.
I think that was the request police had said and is something that has to be considered.
I’m not sure if the family has considered that.
Nyathi was dragged by a mob from his home for not having a passport and beaten up. The vigilantes then stoned him before setting him on fire.
His charred remains were repatriated and buried in Bulawayo. He left behind Tshuma and their four children.