Dead body found in a bush in Umlazi H

The South African

16 hours ago

A dead body was found on the side of a railway line in a bush in Umlazi H, Durban, on Monday, 14 July 2025.
Community members and security officers patrolling the railway discovered the dead body and immediately informed the police, who made their way to the area.
Forensics were also summoned to the scene, where they examined the body and discovered that the deceased was a female believed to be in her teenage years. DEAD BODY DISCOVERED IN UMLAZI H
The deceased was found half-naked with both her hands and legs tied by a rope.
There was also a bruise on her forehead with a pinch of blood drooling down her face.
The South African reached out to the police for comment but they were unable to provide feedback at the time. Durban authorities arrive in Umlazi to collect the dead body found in the bush next to the railway line. IMAGE: Nomndeni Ndlovu.
Sicelo Ntanzi, a community member who lives nearby, said that he did not hear any noise or see suspicious activity, as there was also load shedding.
He says, 'To be honest with you, this comes as a shock because I did not hear anything at all. To make matters worse, there was also load shedding in the area in the past few days, so it was dark and it would have made it challenging for anyone to see anything.'
The area has been plagued by a string of crimes in the past few months.
Nomzamo Gwala, a resident, says that there was a shooting incident in the area a few months ago.
'This other time at the beginning of the year, there was a group of drunk men who were walking on the railway at night, who started fighting and swearing at each other. Their fight quickly escalated into a deadly gunfight when they started shooting at each other.'
'This area is really bad and we have tried multiple times to protect this area and even tried to form a Community Policing Forum (CPF), but it did not work,' says Gwala.
Former security officer and CPF member, Bhekisizwe Mkhabela, said that they did start a policing forum in the area, but it ended up not working as they did not receive enough support.
'You know, when we started this, we had high hopes of bringing change in our community, as many people had lost hope in the police, but then things went astray.'
'There was a meeting held where we were told that we were going to be assisted with vehicles that would patrol in the area, but that did not happen. More and more people started leaving as they felt like they were not receiving support,' Mkhabela explained.
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