A FAMILY from Slovoville in Roodepoort is devastated at the death of their "Angel" after her boyfriend allegedly cracked her skull with a crowbar.

Lunga Bhembe, who would have turned 21 years old next month, was found dumped on the street near her home on Friday night. Neighbours immediately called her father and she was rushed to Leratong Hospital.

Her boyfriend, Hamilton Ncenda, 31, was arrested for the murder and appeared in the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court yesterday.

Her mother, Buhle Bhembe, described her desperate attempt to tell her daughter that she loved her before she died. "I was in Durban when all this happened. I got a call at about 7.30am on Saturday morning informing me that my daughter was badly hurt and in hospital.

"It was so traumatising coming back home. The whole way I was praying and wishing to just find her alive, even if it were her last breath. I just wanted to tell her, remind her, that I loved her," Bhembe said.

She had struggled to get to Durban station and when she finally got there, a full taxi was just leaving. "I pleaded for someone to have mercy and let me take their place but it fell on deaf ears," Bhembe said.

She finally arrived at Park Station in Johannesburg about 12 hours later. When she reached her lift, she noticed that her husband was not there. While asking about him, she got an SMS. "I remember vividly the words 'has passed away' that killed me," she said.

The SMS was from a pastor who was sending out the message of Lunga's death to other pastors to support the family. Lunga's father, Themba Bhembe, is a pastor of the Nazareth Church of Hope.

"My fondest memories of her is that she sang like an angel. She had a beautiful voice," Bhembe said.

She last saw her daughter on October 10 when she left for Durban. Lunga had run to catch up with her mother but missed the bus.

Ncenda was arrested after he tried to pay for petrol at a filling station with a fake R100 note.

Roodepoort police spokesman Constable Vincent Mashiteng said: "One suspect was arrested and charged with fraud and murder. He was arrested at a filling station in Westonaria after employees called the police because he paid with a fake R100. The officers searched his vehicle and found bloodstains and a crowbar.

"When asked about the blood he told the officers that he had killed his girlfriend," Mashiteng said.

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Men who allegedly killed their partners this year:

• IN JANUARY: A Brits father stabbed his three-year-old and 12-year-old sons and their mother to death before drinking poison and killing himself after a quarrel, North West police said.
• Also in January: A 25-year-old Soweto man shot dead his estranged wife, 24, in the presence of their six-month-old baby, then turned the gun on himself, at her home in Zondi.
• Still in January: Cape Town police launched a manhunt for 26-year-old Alexio Mukana from Zimbabwe who was on the run after allegedly killing his wife, Rejoice Giyane, 24, by running her over with a car in Bellville.
• In September: Sarah Molewa, 24, was strangled to death, allegedly by her lover, in their flat in Hatfield, Pretoria. Sithokozile Mkhize, 25, has been charged with the murder.

Molewa was an engineering student at the University of Pretoria (UP) and the second UP student to allegedly be killed by her lover that month.

• Elvira Botter, a final year law student at UP, was also allegedly murdered by her boyfriend. It is alleged that he strangled her after she broke up with him.
• Last week the Pretoria High Court heard evidence in the murder trial of 18-year-old Zanele Khumalo who was allegedly raped and murdered by her boyfriend, the 26-year-old Thato Kutumela.

• This article was first published in the printed newspaper and eEdition on 23 October 2012. Click on this link to view the eEdition