A well-known voice in South African broadcasting and a fierce campaigner for fair music royalties, notably creating the controversial yet popular Summer Song of the Year campaign, Owen Ndlovu was discovered dead in Thokoza on Wednesday morning, hours after being abducted during a violent hijacking in Katlehong.
The incident unfolded on Tuesday evening around 20:00 outside a church in Katlehong, where the fifty-four-year-old had gone to pick up his wife, Portia Ndlovu. As she approached their vehicle, three men intercepted them. One of the assailants, who was armed with a handgun, shoved her aside before forcing Ndlovu into the back of his Ford Raptor bakkie and speeding away from the scene.
The overnight search concluded in tragedy when residents in the nearby township of Thokoza stumbled upon a body on Wednesday morning. Family spokesperson Eugene Mthethwa later confirmed that the deceased was indeed Ndlovu, noting that he had sustained fatal gunshot wounds. His personal bag was discovered discarded a short distance from where his body lay.
Law enforcement officials subsequently located Ndlovu’s hijacked vehicle in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg, where it had been abandoned and partially stripped of its parts. The South African Police Service has launched an intensive investigation into charges of murder and carjacking, with an active manhunt underway to track down the three unidentified suspects.
The Ndlovu family has requested space and privacy as they navigate the sudden and devastating loss.