A visit to the tree where slain Tshegofatso Pule’s body was found
It's been a year but the pain is still raw: Family and friends pay tribute to Tshegofatso Pule.
It has been exactly a year since the gruesome murder of the 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule and her unborn child. On Sunday, June 6, feminists, members of the community, friends, and family came together to pay tribute to her, Soweto Urban reports.
They visited the tree in Durban Deep outside Roodepoort where Pule’s body was found hanging last year in June for a candlelight and wreath-laying ceremony.
The memorial departed from her home in Meadowlands in a motorcade leading to Durban Deep.
Pule was eight months pregnant when she was murdered and everyone who attended this touching memorial kept on looking at the tree, the tree that had to witness the gruesome deeds.
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It was evident that the family’s pain is still raw, the broken-hearted family also called for the government to make safety a priority. Candles, flowers, portraits of Pule, and crosses were put around the tree to commemorate her.
Khuluma Ndoda founder, Patrick Shai delivered an emotional tribute to Pule calling on men to play their part in fighting Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
“This tree refused to keep quiet while men in South Africa are quiet, this tree told the story and horror that Tshegofatso went through. Why are we as men in South Africa quiet about the issues of GBV? There will never be closure for as long as men in South Africa are quiet and letting trees speak on their behalf. Khuluma Ndoda we cannot continue lighting candles because of these gruesome deeds,” Shai said.
“Change my brothers, change must come with you as a man, we must take responsibility as majita and call each other out,” he added.
Shai also said the family of the perpetrator must play their part in advising their son to tell the truth.
“I also want to speak to the families, this pain could have been over if the perpetrator’s family had played their part and took a responsible position and spoke to their son, and ‘say, son, you have murdered a possible Makoti, you have taken a life of a woman, therefore take responsibility, tell the world that you did it so that the case does not prolong and bring more pain to the family,” he said.
“The campaigns against GBV should not continue, we should not find reasons to campaign and it is you and I as men who can make it possible, it is us as families who can stand and take a position against GBV. Don’t wait until we light candles,” he added.
Pule’s killer, Mzikayise Malephane entered into a plea agreement with the state and was convicted while the alleged mastermind, Ntuthuko Shoba is set to go on trial in October.
