Johannesburg - “He made us watch while he stabbed grandma in the neck and killed her.”
This is how a devastated 17-year-old girl recounted how her father allegedly killed her grandmother with a kitchen knife in Orlando East, Soweto, on Thursday.
“I can still smell the blood; I can’t get it out of my head,” the teenager, Coleen Thomo, said.
The haunting screams of a woman calling for help early in the morning woke the neighbours. Worried, some rushed out to check where the noise was coming from. But the cries soon died down and the neighbours returned home.
By 9.30am, news spread that 59-year-old Paulinah Mashabe was stabbed to death by her 39-year-old son, Collen Thomo.
Thomo allegedly tied his daughter, Coleen, and her twin brother, Johnny, to the chair, and forced them to watch. “He told us that after he is done killing grandma, we are next. I begged him not to kill us. He repeatedly said we must shut up.”
Coleen said Thomo, who did not live with them, stormed into the house at about 6am and told them he was going to kill everyone. “He grabbed grandma on the neck and pushed her, she fell on the floor. He told her that today he will send her to the ancestors. He tied us on the chair using the ropes on my gown and started sharpening the knife using a stone.”
Thomo allegedly shoved and beat Paulinah before stabbing her once in the neck.
“A lot of blood came out, we started crying. My grandmother was lying on the floor. I realised she was not breathing any more,” said Coleen.
She managed to loosen the ropes and escape, and started screaming for help. Thomo fled after a failed attempt to hang himself.
When The Star visited the family on Thursday afternoon , the body was lying on the floor in the living room. It had been there since 9am while relatives gathered for a meeting.
They said Collen was an ex-convict who was released on parole in 2013. He was arrested for house-breaking, they said.
“He has a history of drug abuse. He did not deserve the parole. We have been telling the police all along; they did not listen, now look what happened,” said a woman who watched as the body was removed.
Police spokeswoman Sergeant Octavia Thebe said a case of murder had been opened.