Domestic worker’s murder: man held

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RECOVERED: Police and members of a private investigation team hired by Memory Malundas employers take the body of the domestic worker away. The womans body was found in Cato Ridge last week. Picture: Brad Nathanson Investigations

KwaZulu-Natal -A man who allegedly led police to the body of a domestic worker, buried in a bush in Cato Ridge, has been arrested and charged with her murder.

Cleopas Sibusiso Bhengu, 45, appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after his arrest on Tuesday.

He has been charged with the murder of Sikhangezile Memory Malunda, 37, and denied bail.

“[Malunda’s body] was found at Harrison bush near railway [tracks] at 1pm in Cato Ridge with multiple stab wounds,” KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman, Captain Thulani Zwane, said on Sunday.

“She was reported missing at Hillcrest police station on September 2.”

A police source said police had received information last week that the accused had been the last person to seen Malunda alive.

Brad Nathanson, a private investigator hired by the Houghton family, who employed Malunda as a domestic worker,

said the family terminated his services after he had made initial investigations.

“If Memory had gone with someone of her free will, the family felt there was nothing they could do.

“But I had a gut feeling that there was more to this,” Nathanson said.

“At my own cost I decided that we would pursue the investigation.

“We arrested the suspect and recovered Memory’s body from a remote part of Inchanga.

“She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death

,” he said.

Nathanson said the arrest would probably not have been made without the “tireless effort” of his staffer, Heinrich Schwarz.

The Houghtons could not be reached for comment.

Daily News