Luyanda Cele - Everything To Know About Missing Durban Intern Found Mutilated

Luyanda Cele was a 24-year-old Durban-based South African graduate who went missing and was found mutilated in March 2023.

Luyanda Cele went missing after going out for drinks after work on Friday, March 17th – and was found mutilated a day later on Saturday, March 18th with police informing her family of her death on Monday, March 20th.

In this article, Nigeriabombshell.com would give a clear timeline on Luyanda Cele’s case and all there is to know.

Luyanda Cele missing – A timeline

24-year-old Durban woman Luyanda Cele went missing on Friday, March 17th 2023.

Cele, a 24-year-old occupational health and safety intern at the eThekwini municipality, was last seen clocking out from work on Friday, 17 March 2023.

According to her sister, Cele told her family she was meeting with an unknown acquaintance for drinks but never turned up at home that evening.

Her inability to return home was a huge red flag for Cele’s family as she hardly ever stayed out late for drinks after work.

They then grew increasingly concerned when they were unable to reach her phone.

Following this, missing-person posters about Luyanda started flooding social media.

Headlined “Luyanda Cele Intern based at Rennie House (Occupational Health and Safety Unit)”, the poster read: “Please help us find Luyanda Cele who was last seen in Durban city centre on Friday, 17th March.

“Her colleagues reported that she left the office, Rennie House on Victoria Embankment on Friday after 4pm. She had told her sister that she was going out for drinks after work. The details of the person she met are unknown.

“If you have any information on her whereabouts, please contact Sithabile Cele on 076 744 2390 and Lungile Cele on 076 385 2593,”

Aside from the posters flooding social media, relatives took the initiative to hand out flyers in Durban’s CBD after filing a case at the Point police station.

Luyanda Cele mutilated

Sadly, Luyanda Cele’s mutilated body was found dumped in an alley in South Beach near the Metro Lodge in Durban on Saturday, 18th March 2023.

Luyanda’s tongue was chopped off while a piece of her lower lip was cut.

It’s alleged she had left work at about 4 pm on Friday, 17 March. She then called her sister and told her she would be going out and would be home late.

Lungile Cele (38) told Daily Sun when her sister didn’t return home that night, they reported her missing.

“She has never left home and slept somewhere else and besides. She was a very good girl and we knew all her ways,” she said.

Lungile said whoever was behind this dragged her as her white trousers were dirty, showing there was a struggle before she was killed.

“As family, we suspect human trafficking because we can’t make sense of this whole thing. If it was just a robbery, the person wouldn’t have cut pieces of her mouth and tongue,” she said.

The family was contacted by police on Monday and asked to go to Point police station. When they got there, police explained to them they had found Luyanda’s body near Durban’s popular Metro Lodge, in South Beach, in the early hours of Saturday.

She said all they wanted now was justice.

Luyanda’s sister, Sithabile Cele, said: “They said she was found without her lower lip and tongue. We are told that the police are still going to be conducting a postmortem to check what else was removed from her body and if she was raped.

“It’s bad. We are really heartbroken. We are still going to wait for the postmortem to be completed before the family starts to plan. We are hoping that the police will arrest the suspect soon so that we can also understand what happened,” the Cele family said.

Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda condemned the senseless killing.

“Luyunda Cele was young and had a bright future ahead of her. She has been prevented from reaching her full potential as her life has been cut short. I extend my sincere condolences to those who knew and loved her. May her soul rest in peace,” he said.

Kaunda called on police to leave no stone unturned in the hunt for Cele’s killer

“As the leadership of eThekwini Municipality, I strongly condemn this senseless killing and I urge police to ensure that the person who has committed such a heartless crime faces the full might of the law,” he said.

Kaunda and KZN Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza called on police to leave no stone unturned to find her killer.

“We cannot continue business as usual while our children are murdered like this. The death of women affects us all as we are busy dealing with an increasingly high number of cases of gender-based violence in this province,” she said.” she said.

Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo confirmed that cops were investigating a case of murder following an incident that occurred on Pixley KaSeme Street on Saturday, 18 March.

“It is alleged that a body of a woman was found lying in a passage between two buildings. She was later identified by her family and reports indicate that she was last seen on Friday, 17 March 2023. The motive for the killing is unknown,” she said.

Luyanda Cele Biography, Age, Background, Education, Career

Beautiful young South African intern Luyanda Cele was brutally murdered and mutilated after going out for drinks with an unknown acquaintance in Durban in March 2023.

Many are left wondering, who is Luyanda Cele and what happened to her? What is her age, background, education, career etc

Luyanda hails from F section in Umlazi, south of Durban. She was born in 1999 in Durban in the South African province of KwaZulu Natal.

Luyanda Cele’s date of birth is in 1999 but the month and day are not known.

She is a graduate of the University of KwaZulu Natal, where she graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Commerce in Information Systems and Economics, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Her skills, learned from the University and before, included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), Microsoft Power BI, SQL Server Management Studio, Project Management and Microsoft Excel.

After graduation, she joined the eThekwini Municipality as an intern in the occupational health and safety unit.

Luyanda had two siblings as far as we can tell, Lungile and Sithabile Cele. Her parents are unknown however her mother is said to be heartbroken over her death and even unable to speak!

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Mutilated Meaning

According to the Cambridge dictionary, to mutilate is to “damage something severely, especially by violently removing a part”

For example: “Her body had been mutilated beyond recognition,”

Meanwhile, Wikipedia defines mutilation as “severe damage to the body that has a ruinous effect on an individual’s quality of life. It can also refer to alterations that render something inferior, ugly, dysfunctional, or imperfect. In modern times, the term has an overwhelmingly negative connotation,”

In 2013, a hospital suspected to be selling mutilated body parts was shut down in Swaziland. Accusers say people come to the hospital from neighboring South Africa to buy bones, hearts, brains and other organs.

Traditional healers or witch doctors often grind up body parts and combine them with roots, herbs, seawater, animal parts and other ingredients to prepare potions and spells for their clients. Sometimes clients eat the mixture or rub it on the skin or into open wounds.

Source: Nigeriabombshell.com