An agonising week awaits Rasuge family

For the family of murdered Pretoria policewoman Constable Francis Rasuge, the next week will be one of heartache and pain.

The family will have to wait at least a week before an outcome of the analysis of a skeleton unearthed from the front garden of the home of the murdered policewoman’s former boyfriend, William Nkuna.

Rasuge, 27, disappeared eight years ago while walking from her parents’ Temba home to a nearby hair salon.

Nkuna, who has repeatedly made contact with Rasuge’s younger sister from prison, was sentenced a year later to life imprisonment.

The wait comes as Rasuge’s family try to piece together how the body was buried in Nkuna’s garden without anyone noticing.

The skeleton, which was discovered on Tuesday, was buried beneath two separate concrete slabs nearly 2m underground.

The bones were discovered after builders dug up a portion of the garden to lay a foundation for a new house.

The foundation was being laid in a spot that was formally occupied by an RDP house.

A source close to the investigation says that a theory that they are investigating is that Nkuna may have dug the hole from inside the RDP house, using the building to hide what he was doing.

“The front yard is exposed, so you would not be able to dig a hole without someone noticing what you were doing, even at a night.

“The depth and the amount of cement used to make the concrete slabs was vast, so if you were not surrounded by something to hide your activities you would easily have been seen,” said a police source.

For Rasuge’s family the wait is becoming unbearable. Said brother Edward: “We do not know what to do or think. We have been told a week and now we must wait. All we have been doing ever since Francis disappeared is wait. He told us he would take her and kill her and that we would never find her and that is what happened. Our hearts have been sore for so long and they continue to hurt.”

Rasuge said they were hoping that their wait for answers would end with a visit by senior provincial police and government officials next week. “Hopefully then the wait will end,” he said.

Asked what he wanted to know from Nkuna, Rasuge said he had nothing to say to him. “What does one say to someone who has done something like this to your family? He has always been so angry towards our family.

“I never thought he would want to speak to us, but for a while he phoned our younger sister Nini, despite her changing her cellphone number three times, telling her how he was progressing, what he was doing with his life and how he was studying to become a lawyer.

“He would tell Nini a lot of things, but she was not interested in talking to him,” Rasuge said.

Police spokeswoman Captain Katlego Mogale confirmed that the results of the analysis should be known in a week. “Only once the full report is known will we be able to reveal whether the skeleton is that of Rasuge; whether the bones are those of a woman, or the possible cause of death,” she said.

Mogale said the outcome of the results would have no effect on Nkuna’s sentence.

“If the skeleton is found to be of another body we will (look into) other cases,” she said. - Pretoria News