A top KwaZulu-Natal Education Department official has been murdered in her Westville home, and her 10-year-old grandchild is in trauma counselling after witnessing the attack.
Ntombizonke Adelaide Cele, 59, a chief education specialist who was based in Pietermaritzburg, was found strangled in her home early yesterday.
Police Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said Cele was found half-dressed and with her hands and feet bound with rope. Her home had been ransacked.
Her plasma TVs and other items had been moved from their usual places, and one source said it appeared that the attackers had been disturbed.
Cele's 10-year-old granddaughter was in the house at the time of the attack, but was not injured
Mdunge said the attackers escaped in Cele's silver-grey Toyota Yaris, which was found abandoned about an hour later in the Sydenham area.
Shane Botha, who has lived next door to Cele in Methven Road, opposite the Atholl Road Primary School, for the past six years, said he had heard her car alarm go off at 5am, but had not found this unusual as the education official began her day early.
"The next minute I heard my bell ring and, by the time I got there, I saw her granddaughter had already gone next door to ring that neighbour's bell, looking for help," he said.
Mdunge said one person had been taken in for questioning in connection with the incident, but no arrests had been made.
He said Cele had been attacked about 6.30am when she went outside her house to do the washing.
Her body was found "between the kitchen and the bedroom, and it's not clear if she was raped, but medical experts will be called in to do an examination", Mdunge said.
The police were investigating a case of murder with aggravating circumstances.
Botha said that last year, robbers rolled up in lounge carpets the mother of another neighbour and their domestic worker.
He said there had been a spate of recent incidents in the area, and police were guarding the Palmiet Nature Reserve, which was just behind them.
Cele's house was packed with distraught friends and relatives, clearly in shock, yesterday afternoon.
Zama Buthelezi, a spokeswoman for the family, said: "We are not yet ready to comment at this stage."
The Education Department's spokeswoman, Mbali Thusi, said that MEC Senzo Mchunu would visit Cele's family this morning to convey the department's condolences.
Meanwhile, a man was seriously injured when members of the community attacked him with stones and other objects in Umlazi's E section before setting his shack alight yesterday.
Mdunge said that the man was suspected of practising witchcraft.
He was admitted to the township's Prince Mshiyeni Memorial hospital.
