By Buziwe Nocuze
Asiphe Cetywayo, a 22-year-old third-year student at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology from Mbekweni, Paarl, was brutally murdered and her burnt, lifeless body was left in an open field near Vlakkeland.
“Her death has left us in pain,” said Asiphe’s aunt Bongeka Cetywayo, who last saw her niece on Sunday morning.
“Asiphe was doing her final year to become a teacher,” said Bongeka. “She couldn’t wait to graduate, get a job, and take care of her family. But that will never happen because someone has decided to take her life.”
Her aunt said Asiphe had arrived at her house after midnight on Sunday. A few minutes later her friend called her.
Bongeka said she went to bed while Asiphe went outside to be with her friend.
“There was a vehicle parked in front of our yard for almost the entire day. We know the owner because he’s from our area,” said Bongeka.
“[On Monday morning] I went to work and when I came back I was told that my niece hadn’t come home. I thought maybe she slept over at her friend’s place and would come home later.”
She became worried because Asiphe was supposed to go to university that day.
“I told myself that I was not going to work until I found her. I decided to go to her friend’s place to look for her,” she said.
“The friend told me she didn’t know where my niece was.”
Bongeka said the friend told her they had gone to an event in another area with the man who had parked in front of her yard.
At the venue, the friend entered first and she said she only realised later that Asiphe and the driver hadn’t followed her.
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said a 28-year-old man was being held for questioning.
“An inquest case was registered at SAPS Mbekweni and it will now be changed to a murder case after the body of a woman was found in an open field in Mbekweni,” said Van Wyk.
Pictured above: Asiphe Cetywayo, a final-year teaching student, was brutally murdered in Paarl.
Image source: Supplied
