Granting a murder and gender based violence suspect bail has proven to be too costly for a 27-year-old mother of three, North West Premier Thandi Modise said in expressing shock and condemning the brutal murder of the Rustenburg woman who was allegedly killed by her husband who was out on bail.
“Although we respect the independence of our courts and their rulings, we cannot help but say that in this case the justice system might have failed Bonang Kgakatsi and cry out loud louder throughout the 16 days of activism on no violence against women and children that enough is enough. How many more women should be brutally murdered and children left without mothers before we are heard on our call for no bail for perpetrators of gender based violence?” the infuriated Premier Modise asked.
Modise said that escalating incidents of gender based violence demand for united action to prevent brutality against women. She said that one death of a woman at the hands of an abuser is a death too many. The Premier called on women in abusive relationships not to die in silence but to speak out before it’s too late.
Modise reiterated that women should no longer accept that their partners are simply jealous by allowing them to answer their cell phones or question them after every phone call they have received.
“Mistaking this for love has proved to be costly to many women in the long run,” added Premier Modise who conveyed her condolences to the family.
An uncle of the murdered woman, Jacob Moroke corroborated the police report that the woman from Mahlatsi Marwana Section near Lefaragatlhe village was travelling in a car with her husband Mpho Kgakatsi on the R510 Tsitsing road at around 9h00 am when another argument he suspect was related to the earlier incidents erupted.
The victim reportedly managed to get out of the car and ran away, but the suspect caught up with her and stabbed her about nine times in the chest.
Spokesperson for the North West Police, Sergeant Kealeboga Molale said that the victim who stayed in died on the scene.
Moroke said that the man who was out on bail pending his murder and attempted murder trial having allegedly shot dead a colleague of his wife who had answered her cell phone and wounded her on her leg a few weeks ago was in defiance of a contact restriction court order and pressurising her to drop her case against him.
According to Neo Maape her distraught employer at Leungo Construction Enterprise, the deceased woman had left the construction site at Boitekong Health Centre where she was employed unceremoniously without alerting anyone where she was going after receiving a couple of persistent calls. She had been employed on the renovation project as a safety representative.
Molale had earlier said that the arrested suspect is expected to appear in the Tlhabane Magistrates’ Court on Monday to answer to an additional charge of murder.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele, Spokesperson
Tel: 018 388 3705
Cell: 083 629 1987
Fax: 018 388 3157
E-mail: LKgwele@gmail.com
