Nongazi Malgas was stabbed to death in her King William’s Town home last week.
After the brutal murder of her mother, a woman is left with a haunting belief that the killer was after her, not her mother.
Nongazi Malgas, 71, was at her Tapushe village, King William’s Town home when an unknown assailant attacked her in front of her grandchildren.
Her grief-stricken daughter, Sesethu, said the killing was planned.
“It was around 10am last Tuesday, she was lying down in the rondavel, and the grandchildren were with her.
“There was a knock on the door, the person came in and then sat down on the chair near the door.
“My mother asked the strange man who he was and what he wanted, and he said he was Mofokeng but didn’t say what or who he wanted.”
Sesethu explained Malgas asked her 13-year-old granddaughter to bring her water and that is when the suspect attacked the victim.
“Two kids went outside to get water while my mother kept asking who the person was.
“The 13-year-old went to alert her 20-year-old cousin that there was a strange man in the rondavel. Immediately after, the teenager heard my mother screaming for help and when she peeped through the window, she saw the man on top of mom repeatedly stabbing her in the chest.
“There was a nine-year-old boy who watched as his grandmother was knifed.”
Sesethu said the killer casually walked past the other children as he went out the gate.
“The 20-year-old started chasing him, but a neighbour stopped her while the suspect disappeared into the bushes near our home.”
This was not the first Malgas family member who was killed. In 2023, a 16-year-old girl was shot and killed in Sesethu’s car.
“I was shot as I was driving home, they killed my niece. At the time, it was suspected the shooting could have been linked to the Fort Hare shootings but we ruled it out because my boyfriend, who worked there at the time, was far from the incidents,” she recalled.
“I heard there were armed men who were looking for me, I reported to the police but they never attended to the matter. I was forced to flee my home in fear of being killed, couldn’t even attend my niece’s funeral.
“I escalated the matter to the station commander who reassigned me a new investigating officer. This new investigating officer claimed to have been told that I visited the police station and asked that they add my partner, with whom I have kids, in the suspects’ list as we have ‘ongoing paternity and child support issues’, which was far from the truth because I was in hiding in another province with the same partner they said I was accusing of being a suspect. So whoever had me shot, tried to divert attention to make this case seem as a gender-based violence (GBV) one.
“Nothing has ever happened with the case since then, no statement was taken because I had to rush to hospital. The detective never came to me. I went to the station commander so they could investigate and that case is still open and the docket is empty.”
Sesethu said she thinks she was the target of last week’s murder.
“This is personal and I believe this was directed at me. I think the killer was looking for me because I visited home every morning around 9am and maybe after 11, the suspect decided to kill someone closest to me.
“If the police had done their investigation with the first case, this would not have happened. This has left the children traumatised, I have to medicate them so they can sleep.”
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Siphokazi Mawisa said a case of murder had been opened at Tamara SAPS.
“According to the information, it is alleged that the victim was inside her house at Tapushe Administrative area outside King Williams Town when an unknown suspect entered and stabbed the 71-year-old victim. She died on the scene. No arrest has been made. However, an investigation is under way.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
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