The man accused of killing his wife and two daughters in Bedfordshire admitted unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition in a Johannesburg magistrates’ court, and must now await an extradition hearing to decide whether he will be returned to the UK to face three murder charges.
Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma, 45, who is also known as Mark Tshuma and is a British citizen of Zimbabwean heritage, was arrested in Johannesburg after leaving the UK. Police in South Africa said officers found him with a gun and ammunition he had purchased there. At the plea hearing he entered guilty pleas on the South African firearms counts; he could face sentencing on those offences later.
The three murder charges were authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service in England. Tshuma appeared before magistrates in Johannesburg two months after the bodies of his wife and daughters were found at their home in Great Denham, near Bedford. Nothabo Zandile Tshuma, 42, and her daughters Natalie, 15, and Nala, five, were discovered with fatal head injuries on 7 July.
A relative living overseas alerted UK authorities on 6 July after not hearing from the family for several days. Bedfordshire Police carried out a welfare check at an address linked to the household that day, and officers returned to the family home in the early hours of 7 July when the bodies were found.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has opened an investigation into how Bedfordshire Police contacted the mother and her children before their deaths. The force made a mandatory referral to the watchdog on 7 July, and the IOPC said it also received a voluntary conduct referral relating to a police constable the following day.
Coroner’s officers provided statements that gave the cause of death for the mother as "head injuries" and listed the children’s causes of death as "blunt force head injuries." With the South African firearms pleas complete, the immediate next step is the extradition hearing scheduled in South Africa, which will determine whether Tshuma is returned to the UK to face the three murder counts authorised by prosecutors.
