8 |1 AUGUST^2019 http://www.drum.co.za

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HE was often woken by
the sound of the guy who
lived next door watering
his garden. Gogo Lizzy
Masuku’s young neigh-
bour loved tending to the
vegetable patch in his
yard but she wasn’t
bothered by his early morning routine.
In fact, she always admired her neigh-
bour’s green fingers.
“His spinach and mealies always came
out a lot bigger than ours but I thought
it was because he has a tractor and big-
ger hose pipes,” Gogo Lizzy (73) says.
“I didn’t know he was using people’s
bodies as fertiliser.”
Julius Mndawe, the so-called Masoyi
Monster, hit headlines when he was
arrested for the rape and murder of five
young women, all aged between 15 and
24, in Mpumalanga.
For more than a year a predator has

LEFT: Police officers Ntombi zodwa Nhlanhla

and Nanikie Nonyane point out where some

of the victims of alleged serial killer Julius

Mndawe (ABOVE) were buried.

been stalking women in Masoyi as well

as in the neighbouring village of Numbi.

The 25-year-old man recently con-

fessed to killing Banele Khoza, Nomthan-

dazo Mdluli, Noxolo Mdluli, Felicia

Ndlhovu and Tokkie Tlaka. He took

police to his home in Masoyi where he

pointed out the bodies buried in his

house and back garden.

Gog’ Lizzy is stunned she’s been living

next to an alleged serial killer.

At one point Mndawe, a former secu-

rity guard, minded her young grand-

children while she went to church.

She can’t believe the man she treated

like a son has been accused of such

monstrous crimes.

“We both love growing vegetables. He

really took good care of his vegetables.

He’d even give me fertiliser.

“I didn’t know I was growing my plants

next to dead bodies.

“I was so shocked I even had to go to

the clinic because my blood pressure

shot up.”

Gog’ Lizzy saw Mndawe bloom from

a boy to a young man.

“I know his mother. She said if he gives

me problems, I should tell them, but I

loved him. I preferred talking to him

than telling his parents because he was

a child to me.”

He was “quiet”, she says, yet there was

one time she decided to give him a

talking to.

“At some point his loud music shat-

tered our house windows,” she recalls.

“I pleaded with him several times to

turn it down, especially at night, but he

didn’t. He didn’t argue with me either.

He just turned back and left me standing

there. That boy had a thing for loud

music.”

Now she believes he was trying to

make sure they didn’t hear anything

sinister.

ABOVE: Angry community members

torched Mndawe’s house, destroying

evidence and compromising the case

in the process.

THE MONSTER

NEXT DOOR

Neighbours have been left

reeling after the gruesome

discovery of five women’s

bodies in alleged serial

killer’s house and garden

BY KHOSI BIYELA

PICTURES: FANI MAHUNTSI