‘She was filled with laughter and joy’ – Tshegofatso Pule laid to rest

Tshegofatso Pule was laid to rest on Thursday morning, the funeral service was one of heartfelt memories, sadness, anger, and cries as her family, friends and politicians remembered her life, in Meadowlands, Soweto.

Pule went missing on June 4, her body was found hanging from a tree in a Roodepoort veld on Monday with multiple wounds, she was 8 months pregnant.

Her friends remembered her as a jolly soul, filled with laughter, a ball of energy, even though their world was shattered this week they want her memory to be on how she lived and not how she died.

Pule’s mother Grace Mbombo said: “To lose a child, this has hit home. I do not know what I would do to these people that have killed my daughter. Taking away two souls, I don’t know what I would do.”

She said she was waiting for her child’s arms, hoping they would find her after she went missing.

Pule’s uncle, Tumisang Katake, said: “I am struggling to be strong for the family, but I am a human, I am speaking as her uncle, as her brother, these people who have done the horrendous crime. Tshego today is now Karabo Mokoena. I now know how it feels, what the family of Karabo Mokoena went through.”

Katake, a lawyer, said going forward he would never represent a man who has been alleged to have raped a woman or a man who has molested a child.

ANC and EFF politicians were also present, EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said: “It’s a very difficult moment for South Africa, the Covid-19 pandemic, and now this tragedy. Death is not ordinary, there is no ordinary death, this is a tragic death. And on top of that Covid-19 does not allow us to be with the family.

“In a time like this, you can not let the family grieve alone. What is happening is serious, people would have wanted to come in their numbers to attend this funeral, because of social distancing only a few of us could come here. Tell the family that you are with them, support them during this time.”

Ndlozi expressed his anger by the presence of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), he said when the military is needed the most, they only show up when people mourn.

He added that women in this country did not deserve the treatment they received from men.

“Men in this country have declared a war on our women.

“We must tell our mothers, our sisters, our daughters that you have not done anything wrong, these people killing our sisters are cowards, only a coward beats a woman, only a coward kills a woman, only a coward rapes women, these are cowards.”

Ndlozi called for people to find these “cowards” and that men must isolate the rapist among them, and that it was a responsibility to society.

“Femicide is not an invisible enemy like Covid-19, women in this country can fight this enemy like we fought apartheid we can end femicide.”

The family has called for the wheels of justice to turn and for police and investigators do their work.

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