A 33-year-old man, who was on the run after he allegedly fatally stabbed 30-year-old Rinah Malange, handed himself over to the Tshilwavhusiku SAPS on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba, the provincial SAPS spokesperson, the police received a report that a woman, later identified as Rinah Malange from Madodonga village, had been stabbed to death. The victim was found in her bedroom lying in a pool of blood with several stab wounds to the upper body on the morning of 27 April.

A preliminary investigation revealed that Malange was stabbed with a sharp object and repeatedly hit with a hard object, allegedly by her boyfriend, who fled the scene. Her boyfriend, Hulisani Liphaswa, had been released on bail just a day earlier, on 26 April, on charges of rape and attempted murder and was now the prime murder suspect in Malange’s death.

According to a source close to the deceased, Malange and Liphaswa had been living together as husband and wife and had one child together. The couple had a heated argument on the evening of 26 April.

The aunt of the deceased, Ms Ntshengedzeni Mabudu, said the incident had left the family stunned. "We heard that the couple had had some differences," she said, adding that the marriage was an abusive one and that Malange was like a slave in her own home. "Rinah was a prisoner; she never enjoyed life and lived a miserable life up to the end," she said.

Ms Mabudu also expressed concern that, after the incident, no one from the family had informed them, but they had heard about it from strangers and later from the police. "We are very hurt as we do not even know what exactly happened to our daughter and her children," she said.

Malange will be buried on Saturday at the Madodonga cemetery. The service is scheduled to start at 06:00. At the time of this update, Liphaswa was scheduled to appear before the Tshilwavhusiku Magistrate's Court.