THE body of a victim of xenophobia attacks of South Africa arrived in Bulawayo yesterday with relatives noting that the man was stabbed, assaulted and burnt first before his body was dumped in a stadium in Johannesburg.

The body of Muziwandile Mhlanga arrived at the family home in Magwegwe were relatives narrated how the man met his death at the hands of the South African mobs.

An aunt to the deceased, Mrs Senzeni Tshuma said her nephew went missing for two days before he was found dead.

“What happened is last Thursday he went out towards end of day and never returned. When his friends he lived with realized that he was not coming back they called his mother to tell them that they couldn’t find him.

“He went missing for two days and on the third day he was found thrown into a security guardroom at a stadium already dead with his phone and shoes stolen,” she said.

She said what pains the most is that he was still young trying to make a living in South Africa.

“My nephew was only 21 years old, he had only been there for seven months and had recently found a job and moved out from his parents’ place to live with his friends,” said Mrs Tshuma.

The body was later taken to Lupane for burial today.

“He is going to be buried tomorrow in Lupane at Shurudunku where we come from as a Mhlanga family,” she said.

“What pains me is that we are all Africans and when they come here we treat them well and accommodate them so what we are asking from them is that when they no longer want Zimbabweans in their country they should depot them rather than showing such kind of brutality.”

Speaking during the service, Zanu-PF Central Committee Member and Bulawayo Senator Molly Mpofu said she was pained to see how Zimbabweans were being treated.

“It is painful to see how our children are being treated in a fellow SADC country where they go in order to find a better living.

“We are pained as the leadership of this country when such things take place so we want to appeal to the President of the country (South Africa) to have pity on our children because as I speak today this is the second body which arrived of a person killed in xenophobic attacks,” she said.

“He should teach his people not to take the law into their own hands,” said Sen Mpofu.