Revealed: International five day manhunt for £100k-a-year IT expert who fled Britain after 'murdering his wife and two daughters at the family's £1.3million home' ended with arrest in Johannesburg

Published: 12:20, 11 July 2026 | Updated: 12:20, 11 July 2026 It was 8pm on Friday when news broke that South African police officers had apprehended British IT expert Ndodana Tshuma in Johannesburg surrounded by his family, bringing to an end an international manhunt that gripped the country. From the moment the bodies of his wife Zandile and their two daughters Nala, five, and Natalie, 15, were discovered on Monday in the family's luxury £1.3million home in Great Denham, Bedfordshire, detectives in the UK urgently sought Tshuma. Shortly afterwards detectives released CCTV footage of the successful businessman, known to his friends as Mark, at London's Heathrow Airport where he boarded a flight for Zimbabwe. For five days detectives in the UK worked with their counter parts in Zimbabwe and a team from South African Interpol to hunt down the BMW-driving father of two whom neighbours in Bedford described a 'quite well to do'. It had been no secret that the Tshumas' marriage was in trouble. Despite Mark - who earned £100,000-a-year and had a property portfolio worth over £2million - keeping up appearances by standing next to his estranged wife for sports day at their daughter's prestigious £20,000 a year school, it was common knowledge that they were divorcing. Their sprawling four-bedroom house with a swimming pool bought only two years ago had already been valued by estate agents with a view to a sale, and Zandile, 42, a successful cyber security expert, was already planning a life with her daughters, away from her husband. Quite what was going through Tshuma's mind when he boarded that flight on Saturday - with Zandile and the girls lying dead in the family home - is unclear. Now, as he languishes in a prison cell in Johannesburg awaiting a hearing on Monday so proceedings can begin to return him to the UK, detectives are piecing together his movements since Friday. Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma (pictured) was arrested in Johannesburg on suspicion of murdering his wife and two children in Britain A South African Police Service spokesperson said suspect Tshuma was traced 'within a matter of hours' to Kensington by the force's multi-disciplinary team Nothabo Zandile Tshuma, 42, known as Zandile, and her daughters Nala, five, and Natalie, 15, were found dead at a house in Bedfordshire Tshuma seen on CCTV at Heathrow on Saturday leaving the UK The suspected murder at the house in Carnoustie Drive, Great Denham, near Bedford, prompted an international manhunt. Pictured: Police at the address on Tuesday Tshuma was detained in the Kensington area of Johannesburg where he was apparently with relatives. An Interpol red notice was only issued against him on Thursday with police then receiving a tip off from a family member as to his whereabouts, leading to his arrest a day later. As he was led away in handcuffs, National Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said: 'The swift arrest demonstrates the capability, the professionalism, as well as the operational excellence of the South African Police Service and the strength of our corporation, with international law enforcement agencies.  'Let this be a stern warning to criminals across the world that South Africa is not a hideout for fugitives. 'If you commit serious crimes anywhere in the world and think you can evade justice by fleeing to South Africa, you are mistaken.'  It is believed that after arriving in Johannesburg and before his arrest in South Africa he had travelled to neighbouring Zimbabwe – the country where he grew up and where he and Zandile met before moving the Britain to study at university – and headed straight for Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city. On Wednesday neighbours spotted Tshuma at the family home in the city's Luveve district. Locals claimed that they had seen him walking along its bustling high street - an unpaved thoroughfare lined with shops and rowdy bars on one side and stalls selling tatty clothes and food on the other. The village of Luveve, a suburb of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, where Zandile was born and raised Zandile's parents, Valile and Livingstone, still live in Luveve in the same house their daughter grew up in. A close friend of Zandile's family said 'the whole community is grieving for the killings of our three angels' Police stepped up patrols in the area and locals also told how a number of roadblocks were set up with more drivers being stopped and questioned. While the sightings were taken with the utmost seriousness given the nature of the alleged crime, there were also questions about their credibility. The killing of Tshuma's family has become the talk of Zimbabwe, leading to fears that reported sightings of him may have been a more down to a wave of semi hysteria sweeping the country. As one local in Luveve, a shabby, crowded suburb of Bulawayo with a population of around 200,000 people said: 'We know Tshuma was a very rich man in the UK and a lot of people have been talking about the case and seen his pictures all over the internet. 'There were people claiming to have seen him all over the city.' His arrest will certainly have come as a huge relief for Zandile's family, many of whom live in Luveve, where she was born and raised. Her parents Valile, a retired teacher and father Livingstone, who used to work for Zimbabwe railways still reside in the same yellow bungalow she once called home and where friends and relatives have been gathering over the past week to pay their respects. The couple, who are in their 70s have another daughter older than Zandile. Susepect Tshuma was spotted on Wednesday walking along Luveve's bustling high street  A close friend said: 'The whole community is grieving for the killings of our three angels. We are all devastated and heartbroken. 'These are incredibly difficult times for the family but hopefully God will grant them peace and comfort now that Tshuma has been arrested.' The friend revealed that Tshuma and Zandile met when she was in her late teens and continued their relationship after he left for the UK in 2001 when he went to study Computing Informatics at the University of Plymouth. After finishing her own studies and working in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, she eventually joined him in 2009. The couple married a year later in a ceremony that took place in a gaming lodge on the outskirts of Bulawayo which was attended by around 300 guests. In the UK, the couple enjoyed huge success and led a comfortable upper middle-class life in their lavish home which had swimming pool, four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Tshuma owns and runs a property business called Nexus Trove Holdings which he operated from his luxury home in Great Denham. Accounts show the business had assets of just over £1 million and in 2024, the firm, of which he is sole director, made a profit of close to £50,000. It also owned a five-bedroom detached home in Kempston, Bedfordshire worth £625,000. Tshuma earned £100,000-a-year as a senior IT manager and drove a BMW A woman, who laid flowers outside the house on Tuesday evening, said: 'We are really sorry to lose her, she was such a gracious mother' A forensics police officer was pictured at the property where the bodies were found on Monday Tshuma was with his wife at their daughter's school sports day on Friday, hours before the bodies were discovered. He had told friends he couldn't live without her and their daughters Prior to starting his property business, he worked as a senior IT manager earning more than £100,000 per year. Zandile also enjoyed a six-figure salary as an Associate Director for Forensic Risk Alliance, an international consultancy specialising in forensic accounting and data analytics. Tshuma's arrest is being widely seen as the result of successful and rapid co-operation between Interpol and police in three different countries; the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Prior to his detention, two South African police officers seconded to Interpol were in Zimbabwe to help with the manhunt following reports that he was there. A South African lawyer acting on behalf of Interpol was also dispatched to Zimbabwe to ensure that Tshuma's extradition was processed as quickly as possible if he was found there. In the end, he was discovered in the hilly suburb of Kensington in Johannesburg, surrounded by relatives. Questions will now be asked as to how much they knew about what he is allegedly said to have done and how he managed to evade capture as investigators attempt to uncover his week as an international fugitive.