Elmon Tshikhudo
When Norman Mnisi was killed in a police shootout on Saturday, the Nemaranzhe family’s last remaining hopes of seeing their daughter alive again faded.
Almost a year has passed since Rolivhuwa Nemaranzhe of Duthuni outside Thohoyandou, Limpopo, went missing.
On 23 December last year, the 30-year-old woman had an explosive argument with her boyfriend Mnisi. She managed to use her phone to record him making threats to her life, and sent the recording to some of her friends.
That was the last time Rolivhuwa’s family heard from their daughter and from Mnisi, who also disappeared that night. Police suspected he had gone on the run and neither they nor Rolivhuwa’s family had much doubt Mnisi was responsible for her disappearance.
“We strongly believe he knew where our sister was,” said Thuna Nemaranzhe, Rolivhuwa’s sister.
For the past 11 months, Thuna and her family searched with the police for a trace of Rolivhuwa’s whereabouts, but to no avail. They soon came to believe their only chance of finding her, alive or dead, was through Norman Mnisi.
But Mnisi was shot dead by police last weekend in KwaMhlanga, Mpumalanga.
Police had stepped up their search for Mnisi last month after he and several accomplices emerged as suspects in the shooting of senior police officer Colonel Tshitereke Masuvhelele.
Masuvhelele was shot dead at his business at Malonga in the Vuwani area on 8 October.
Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said that the men were cornered at their hideout at KwaMhlanga.
“On arrival at the hideout police were met by a hail of bullets and they retaliated. During the shootout a suspect aged 31 was fatally wounded,” he said.
Thuna said the family received the news of Mnisi’s death with mixed feelings.
“As a family we wanted to meet this man so that he could shed light on the whereabouts of our loved one,” she said.
“News of his death came as a big blow to us because Rolivhuwa is still missing.”
Thuna retains hope that the arrest of four of Mnisi’s accomplices might be a key to unlocking the puzzle of her sister’s whereabouts.
