Remains of murdered woman found in Pit toilet

A church is one of the most sacred places where believers meet for prayers and sermons. This is one of the last places where one would expect a dead body. Residents of Tsianda had a rude awakening last Friday, when a partly decomposed body was found buried in a pit toilet.

It is said to be the body of Ms Thinavhuyo Selina Singo (60), who went missing on 3 June after leaving her home. She was never seen alive again. News of her dissappearance was reported to the local traditional leader and to the police, where a missing person's docket was registered.

Mr Noel Singo (26), Ms Singo's only child, said bad luck seemed to be following their family. "Two months ago, a man who had problems with his wife came here and burnt part of our house, while we were busy opening a case against him at the police station. He also broke windows of the house."

He did not know that the worst was still to come. "My mother had been missing for a number of days and we were still trying to figure out what could have happened to her when we received the bad news." He said the information they received regarding the death of his mother was that she had been killed and that "her body was thrown into the toilet like a dead dog." It was also established that the body was later set on fire.

He added that the death had brought a lot of misery to the family as they had to prepare for a funeral that they had not planned. "No one is working in this family and we do not even know how we are going to bury her". Ms Singo used to make a living by doing piece jobs at people's homes in the village.

The traditional healer and the local CPF chairperson, Mr Matamba Mamuremi, condemned the killing."We are doing our best to fight crime in this village and we cannot do otherwise but to condemn this brutal act. So far we do not know what had happened to her before she was thrown into that toilet and we do not want to jump to conclusions."

He added that they hoped that the police investigations would reveal what had actually happened. "What we want now is the speedy arrest of the culprits to stop them in their evil tracks before more people are killed."

Levubu police spokesperson W/O Solly Mukhola said they received a call on Thursday (11 June) about a fire at a local church pit toilet. "Community members became suspicious and called the police, whereupon the zink pit toilet was removed and a woman's body in a decomposed state was retrieved from the toilet."

He also mentioned that the body could not be identified as it was badly decomposed and that it would be taken for DNA testing to further confirm its identity. He added that the police already had a suspect and that they would soon make an arrest.

Date:19 June 2015

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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