Precious Mngomezulu's battered face and badly burnt body were in such a terrible state that her family struggled to identify her.

Mngomezulu, 47, from Meadowlands in Soweto, was reported missing four days
before her body was discovered on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Mngomezulu's boyfriend Bongani Makhoba, 53, appeared in the Protea Magistrate's Court charged with her murder. He has yet to plead on the charge.

Mngomezulu's brother Nkosana Dlamini told Sowetan yesterday how the family's search for his sister ended in horror.

"We found her neck tied with an orange overall. We couldn't see if it was her and I had to look at her hands to identify her," Dlamini said.

"Maggots had also started to develop on her body. She was burnt from the neck down, making it even harder for us to identify her."

Dlamini said the brutal nature in which his sister was killed left the family in complete disbelief as the alleged killer is someone the family trusted.

"We had received reports of physical abuse having taken place on one occasion between them. But we never imagined that this is how things would end," he said.

According to the family, Mngomezulu went missing after a funeral in Meadowlands and was last seen with Makhoba.

Dlamini said neighbours became suspicious after they saw Makhoba dragging a heavy municipal dustbin out of the yard where he was renting a room a day before his
sister was found.

"Those who saw him when he went to dispose of my sister's body said he used a Pikitup dustbin," he said.

The body was found at Dorothy Nyembe Park in Dobsonville.

During Makhoba's brief appearance yesterday, he told the court he was previously convicted for a 1987 rape in Orlando. Magistrate Audrey Mpofu postponed the matter to Friday for bail application.