A LIFE CUT SHORT

The family of slain law student Nosicelo Mtebeni are reeling in shock

- LESEGO MKHIZE

SHE felt sick to her stomach. As she stared at the picture on her phone, Ntombovuyo Mtebeni kept telling herself there must be some mistake – it couldn’t be her cousin, Nosicelo Mtebeni, who’d been killed in such a horrific way.

She didn’t want to believe Nosicelo had been dismembered, stuffed into a suitcase, and discarded on a street corner just meters from her home in Quigney, East London.

But as she stared at the grim pictures doing the rounds on social media, Ntombo vuyo knew deep down it was true. Her beloved cousin, a law student at the University of Fort Hare, was the victim of this unspeakable deed.

As the crime sent shockwaves around SA, many wondered who’d do such a thing? But it didn’t take long for police to make a breakthrough in the case.

Reportedly missing from the suitcase were Nosicelo’s head and hands. After these had been found at the commune where she’d lived with her boyfriend, Alutha Pasile (25), he was swiftly arrested.

The national prosecuting authority (NPA) says he’s confessed to the gruesome crime and doesn’t intend to contest the case.

And the reason he killed Nosicelo? He reportedly told the NPA it was because he’d stumbled across incontrovertible evidence that she’d been cheating on him.

NTOMBOVUYO (36) was at the magistrate’s court in East London when Pasile made his first appearance but left with more questions than answers.

She says her family had never met him and weren’t aware that Nosicelo was dating him, let alone living with him.