By Tendai Makaripe
The bodies of Nothabo Tshuma and daughters Natalie and Nala arrived in Zimbabwe Monday ahead of their burial in Bulawayo on Tuesday.
Bedfordshire Police officers discovered Nothabo Zandile Tshuma, 42, and her daughters, Natalie, 15, and Nala, 5, dead at their home in Great Denham, England, on July 7.
An inquest that opened last week heard that all three died from head injuries.
The family will hold a funeral service Tuesday morning at Lobengula Brethren in Christ Church before laying the three to rest together at Luveve Cemetery.
Family spokesperson Leon Khumalo described the repatriation as the end of an agonising wait for relatives who had mourned from afar for nearly a month.
“This has been an unbearably painful journey for our family,” Khumalo said in a statement announcing the funeral arrangements.
He thanked Nothabo’s colleagues, relatives, friends, church members and the wider Bulawayo community for supporting the family.
“Your prayers, messages, visits, kindness and unwavering support have carried us through some of our darkest moments,” Khumalo said.
The victims’ aunt, Gertrude Khumalo, previously said bringing the three home would provide some relief to their grieving relatives.
“It has been a long wait for them. It has been a difficult wait for them,” she said during a remembrance service in Bedfordshire.
Meanwhile, Nothabo’s husband and the children’s father, Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma, remains in custody in South Africa.
British authorities have asked South Africa to extradite Tshuma so he can face three murder charges in the United Kingdom.
South African authorities arrested him in Kensington, Johannesburg, on July 10 after British authorities requested his detention.
Tshuma also faces a separate South African charge of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He abandoned his bail application in that matter.
The Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court postponed the extradition proceedings and firearm case to August 27.
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority said British authorities needed more time to finalise the extradition documents.
South African police also require additional time to complete their firearm investigation.
No court has tried or convicted Tshuma in connection with the deaths.
The repatriation of Nothabo Tshuma and daughters Natalie and Nala follows a remembrance service that family members, friends and colleagues held in Bedfordshire last week.
