KwaMbonambi (Zululand) - 18/01/2016
GENOCIDE VICTIMS: Anne & David. Strauss
The two black killers stabbed the elderly KwaZulu-Natal man and his screaming wife Ann (73) repeatedly as the couple tried in vain to escape the clutches of their killers.
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AS he walked out of his home to sit on his veranda early on January 18 this year, 76-year-old David Strauss was set upon by knifemen who lay in wait for him in a flower bed.
The two assailants stabbed the elderly KwaZulu-Natal man and his screaming wife Ann (73) repeatedly as the couple tried in vain to escape the clutches of their killers.
The description of the violent death of the elderly couple at KwaMbonambi in Zululand emerges from statements made by their two killers in the Pietermaritzburg high court this week.
Ntokozo Mbuyazi (21) and Mpilo Ngema (20) pleaded guilty before judge Yvonne Mbatha to murdering the couple, robbery with aggravating circumstances and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
According to Mbuyazi, they learnt from the Strausses’ gardener Philani that there was a “safe with lots of money” in the couple’s home. He and Ngema then decided to rob the couple.
They went to the Strauss home in KwaMbonambi at 2 am on the day of the murder, armed with knives, and hid in the yard “by the flowers” until David Strauss emerged from the house at 6 am. Ngema said Strauss went to sit on the veranda. He and Mbuyazi “crawled” towards Strauss, who screamed and tried to run into his house on seeing them.
“The deceased (David Strauss) tried to close the burglar gate and he hit Ntokozo with the gate. I then stabbed the deceased; I don’t remember how many times I stabbed him,” said Ngema.
He said Strauss thereafter “went and sat down against a wall”.
According to Mbuyazi, when Strauss tried to flee into his house, screaming, he was stabbed by Ngema.
“Mpilo stabbed [him]; I don’t know how many times. The deceased’s wife (Ann) came to the door, screaming for help. I took her back into the house, but she ran out again. I brought her back into the house again and I stabbed her. I cannot remember how many times,” said Mbuyazi.
He said in his statement he left Ann sitting down and went to the safe box.
After failing to open the safe, Mbuyazi and Ngema said they loaded stolen goods into the Strauss’s Nissan Almera car and left the scene.
The men took the stolen items — including a firearm and ammunition they stole from the property — to a friend’s house. This is the weapon which they are now charged with illegally possessing.
Mbuyazi said he was arrested on the day of the murder while “driving around” in the stolen car.
From January 20 onwards he co-operated with the police, and had pointed out the crime scene and where they had hidden all the stolen goods, he said.
Ngema was arrested on January 27.
Both men said they are remorseful and asked the court for mercy.
The case was postponed to May 3 pending these reports.
THE Strausses had strong ties to Pietermaritzburg, and close relatives, including their daughter Melinda Emslie and David’s sister Margaret Nel still live in the capital.
David Strauss attended Merchiston Primary School and Maritzburg College, and later worked in the agricultural sector in the Midlands.
He was a retired draughtsman.
Emslie was devastated yesterday when she learnt for the first time that her parents’ killers had appeared in court and had pleaded guilty, without the family knowing.
“We were told that they might appear in court and that we would be kept informed. I am actually very upset that we did not know. We were bracing ourselves for the court appearance. We were all going to be there,” she said.
Speaking of the killers, she said: “I cannot forgive them for what they did. They are brutal murderers. They went there with the intention of harming my parents, who never hurt anyone.”
She said the crime scene showed her parents had suffered immensely.
It was obvious that her frail mother, who was suffering from dementia, had locked herself into the spare room and that the killers broke the door to get to her, she said.
Ann was tied to a bed and was stabbed several times in her neck.
Emslie said her father was tied to a chair in the dining room, and had been stabbed multiple times in his back, chest and hands.
Broken spectacles and blood spatter in the yard were indicative of the struggle her parents had endured.
“This has been one of the hardest things we have ever had to endure as a family. It’s just not fair. Nobody’s life means anything anymore,” she said.
Emslie said later she had got hold of three of her nine siblings (some of whom are overseas) to tell them about the pleas.
“All of us just want the full truth to be told, not the watered-down version,” she said.
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