Pretoria - The joy of finally seeing someone arrested for the murder of her 28-year-old daughter, Nomoya Phetla, last December had eased the pain in Sylvia Nqongwane’s heart.
But when she was told the accused was out on bail last week her dreams about justice were shattered.
“We have attended every appearance since his arrest in December, and bail has always been denied,” the mother said.
Sibusiso Mahlangu was arrested on suspicion of killing the mother of his then 8-year-old daughter 14 months after her body was found dumped under a bridge in an isolated area in KwaMhlanga, where the young couple resided.
“He reported her missing on a Sunday night, saying she’d gone jogging at 7 that evening,” Nqongwane said.
Phetla’s body was found in a pyjama top two days later. She had a cracked skull.
“She did not have jogging gear on her and that is what sparked suspicion that there was more to her disappearance than Mahlangu was willing to tell,” Phetla’s sister Anna Phetla said.
Her sister’s front teeth were loose and she had scratch marks on her forearms “almost like she’d been defending herself in an attack”, Anna said.
Her grimace, said her mother, was one of agony captured during what appeared to have been a scream. “It was the most painful sight I’ve had to behold; it was my daughter lying on the mortuary (gurney), dead from an obviously violent attack.
“All I wanted was to see her killer caught and brought to book,”
For a year police investigated the death, eventually arresting the man who allegedly continually abused the young mother throughout their marriage.
Nqongwane said the two had been childhood sweethearts. They had met when the girl was in matric.
He paid lobola and Phetla moved to live with him in KwaMhlanga, but she kept her job and flat in Pretoria. She worked at Louis Pasteur Hospital and visited her family every weekend.
On the fateful Sunday her mother had struggled to get hold of her.
“She did not answer her phone for our customary evening call to establish that she had travelled back safely.”
Later Mahlangu called to say she had gone missing, prompting the mother to get her relatives together and drive from Soshanguve to KwaMhlanga to be part of a search that lasted until the following morning.
The next two days were agonising as she waited for word from the police.
“When they called to say they had news I thought she’d come back home; only to get there and be told she had been found dead.”
The couple had often fought over money.
“She worked and he didn’t and his financial demands often overwhelmed her,” said Phetla.
Mahlangu was released on bail of R3 000, she said.
On Tuesday was due at the high court sitting in Kwaggafontein, Mpumalanga, for the setting of a court date for trial, a police spokeswoman said.
@ntsandvose
Pretoria News