Betty Sithole sits quietly in the corner of an RDP house in Ikageng, Potchefstroom, in North West, as she recalls the chilling words from her ex-lover, who said he was going to kill her daughter if she did not take him back.
Little Kamogelo,10, was kidnapped from Madibeng Primary School allegedly by her mother's ex-boyfriend whom she had broken up with a week earlier due to continued incidents of abuse in their relationship.
She was found dead and stuffed under a bed in a shack on Monday, just a day after the man was arrested for her abduction and skipping court where he was to appear on a charge of attempted murder on Thursday last week.
“I did not say that it would end up like this,” said Sithole. “We were at the Ikageng magistrate's court on Thursday [morning] where he was due to appear on a charge of attempted murder after he beat me and broke my knee in June last year.
“Before his matter was called, he stormed out of court after I told him I would proceed with the case. I then received a few voice notes from him on WhatsApp, saying he had my daughter with him and that he was going to kill her and kill himself if I did not take him back and drop the charges,” said an emotional Sithole.
She said she rushed to the school to look for her daughter and was told by teachers that she was not there. “They told me 'her uncle' picked her up and said there was a family emergency. I asked them how they could allow her to leave with a man they did not know,” said Sithole.
She said a search for her daughter resumed.
“The police arrested him on Sunday and he told them where he hid her. I cannot understand why he killed Kamogelo. She was innocent and had nothing to do with what was happening between us. My child was sweet, quiet and intelligent. She did not do anything to deserve this,” Sithole said.
She also revealed how her ex-lover had allegedly stabbed her seven times in another violent attack last year, adding that she had tried so many times to forgive him after he said he would stop abusing her.
She and the man have a two-year-old child together. Sithole has three other children, including Kamogelo.
Provincial police spokesperson Capt Sam Tselanyane told Sowetan that the suspect was arrested and faced charges of murder, kidnapping and contempt of court after absconding from his attempted murder case last week.
“He is expected to appear in the Ikageng magistrate's court on Wednesday where he will be formally charged,” said Tselanyane .
At the scene of the crime, in a shack that was demolished on Monday after Kamogelo’s body was discovered, neighbours described a pungent smell which emanated from their yard but they could not locate its origin.
Poppy Mokoena, who lived in a shack next to the one in which the body was discovered, said: “The police came here at the weekend and searched but did not find anything. It was on Monday when they came with the suspect that they found her body under the bed.”
Blood stains could still be seen where Kamogelo’s body had laid for four days.
Neighbours described the couple’s relationship as volatile and that they had pleaded with Sithole to cut ties with her partner.
Rosy Lekhele said: “Sometimes at night you would hear her screaming while she was being assaulted. We tried to intervene the one time, but that guy would tell us that he would kill us after he was done with her. We were scared of him,” said Lekhele.
