South Africa will extradite a man arrested in Johannesburg and accused of murdering his family in Britain, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi announced on Sunday 12 July.

Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma (45), now identified as a British citizen of Zimbabwean heritage, was arrested in Kensington, Johannesburg, on Friday 10 July.

The arrest was made in an intelligence-led operation involving police, Interpol’s National Central Bureau, Crime Intelligence and the Organised Crime Investigation Unit.

British prosecutors authorised police to charge him with three counts of murder after the bodies of his wife, Nothabo Zandile Tshuma (42), and their daughters, Natalie (15) and Nala (5), were found at their home in Great Denham, Bedfordshire, England, on Monday 6 July.

According to media reports, Tshuma was pictured at Heathrow Airport on Saturday 4 July, before the bodies were discovered. He fled to Zimbabwe before travelling to South Africa.

Kubayi told reporters that Tshuma “will be extradited to the UK once I have signed all the extradition documents and requests”.

“The teams are working quite hard around the clock so that the extradition requests are done and the paperwork is done in time,” she said, without giving a timeline.

Acting National Commissioner of police Lt Gen Puleng Dimpane commended the agencies involved in the arrest, saying South Africa is not a safe haven for fugitives.

“Anyone who believes they can evade justice by fleeing to our country should know that [police] will work tirelessly with international law enforcement partners to trace, locate and arrest them,” Dimpane said in a statement.

Tshuma is due to appear in a Johannesburg court on Monday 13 July.