Pretoria radio station founder, partner, missing
PICTURE: Sbusiso Aserie Ndlovu (Instagram)
UPDATE: City Press reported on 17 March 2025 that ‘fellow journalists’ had offered a ‘R50 000 reward for any leads on the mysterious disappearance of a Pretoria journalist and his partner, [which] has rocked the industry’. Read more at the foot of the story
Monique Lewis
The families of missing journalist Sbusiso Aserie Ndlovu and his partner, Zodwa Mdhuli, have appealed to the public for assistance in locating them. The couple was reported missing on 18 February.
Ndlovu, a National Press Club executive committee member and founder of Capital Live SA radio in Mamelodi East, was last seen leaving Denlyn Mall in Mamelodi – where the station is situated – wearing blue jeans, a blue and white long-sleeve shirt and Nike sneakers. His partner was reported missing the same evening.
The missing couple’s shocked and devastated families addressed the media in Pretoria on Sunday 2 March, pleading for their safe return.
‘[Ndlovu] is 39 years old, tall and dark in complexion … To Sibusiso, if you are watching or listening, we want you to know that we love you and doing everything we can to find you,’ said one of the family members.
‘As a family, we are very hurt. We are very shattered and would like any source of help in locating both Zodwa and Sibusiso because everyday that’s passing it gets harder for all of us,’ lamented another family member.
Family representative and musician Vusi Mahlasela described Ndlovu as ‘a happy soul’.
‘He … is not a person who you would think that he is in trouble with anybody. He is always a free spirit. The last time he came to my house – Monday before Tuesday when he disappeared – to come collect a trumpet at my studio to give to somebody, but I was not at home. But he came there and that [was] the last time they saw him.’
Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Mavela Masondo says investigations are continuing, ‘appealing to anyone who might have information to call Sergeant Lekganyane on 0827686433 or the nearest police station.’
- This article first appeared here
- Sowetan newspaper reported on 3 March that ‘the family … say they cannot rule out the work of Mamelodi-based Boko Haram extortion gang in their disappearance’, with Ndlovu’s brother, Sifiso Ndlovu, saying ‘a group of men … approached Ndlovu for a “protection fee” at Denlyn Mall where his online radio station operates … in October last year’. The newspaper reported that ‘not … much [was made of it at the time], but now [the family] suspects the alleged extortion may be linked to the couple’s disappearance’. Read more here
UPDATE:
The reward was offered by the National Press Club and the African Media and Communications Forum during a media briefing in Tshwane on Sunday, wrote City Press. Further, said the newspaper, ‘Calvin Rafadi, a private investigator roped in to assist with tracing the couple, said there was no evidence that Ndlovu was being extorted’
