“I have killed her” – soldier boasts to baby son

A one-year-old boy has been suffering recurring nightmares every night since he witnessed his father stabbing his mother to death in cold blood.
The traumatised little boy communicated, in baby language, to his grandfather, John Mosasi, how his 40-year-old father in the military murdered his 35-year-old mother, Madimakatso Ruth Jantjies in the family home in Ext. 7 on Sunday, after the family’s traditional ceremony.
According to John, five bloodied knives believed to be those used to stab his daughter multiple times were found at the scene.
“My grandson demonstrated how the blood poured from her body and how she breathed out her last breath. He also told me that his father proclaimed: ‘I have killed her’,” John said.
The perpetrator then took his son, who was covered in blood, to the neighbour and told her to call the police. He then proceeded to lock himself in the house with the deceased.
John says the victim’s 9-year-old son later also testified how he had to force his way into the house and found the suspect sitting on top of the lifeless body of his mother holding a knife, telling him ‘Go fedile!’ (‘It is done!’)
The sobbing boy ran off to his granddad to relay the heartbreaking news.
Upon his arrival at his daughter’s house, the neighbours stopped John from going in and advised him to wait for the police. The suspect was later arrested.

The couple had been in a relationship for five years. According to the cousin of the victim, 40-year-old Nthabiseng Seala, a fight started after Madimakatso recently found out that her boyfriend had a wife and children in Klerksdorp. He was nagging her to discuss the matter at the ceremony but she didn’t want to. She wanted him to move out of her house because she did not want another woman’s husband.
“That must have infuriated him. He has been abusive throughout the years we have known him. The police van has been called twice because of his rages against my cousin. He once threw a beer bottle at my cousin’s 14-year-old daughter, telling her she is not his child,” she said.
The family feels as if a spear has pierced through their hearts. They would have preferred it if their daughter had been sick and they could have nursed her until she passed away.
“This was an inhumane way to die,” says John, adding that they haven’t been able to eat or sleep properly since the incident.
“The baby trembles even when he is in a deep sleep and the other son cries whenever he has flashbacks,” John says.
Nthabiseng lives with the regret that she and another cousin never went back home with Madimakatso after the ceremony when the suspect invited them over.
“Maybe I would have fought him myself, or he would have killed all three of us. Nobody knows,” she said.
John threatens to take the law into his own hands if the suspect comes near their home.
“He will be out of jail and I will be the one going in for avenging my daughter’s death,” he said angrily.
Madimakatso’s family remembers her as ever-smiling and respectful to everyone including the neighbours.
“She would come into the house and greet you with almost all official languages, and I would ask her where she learnt that,” says Dimakatso.
Her body will be laid to rest in Ext. 7 this Saturday, if the post-mortem has been concluded.
She leaves behind their one-year-old son and her two other children.