The 36-year-old mom of three was stabbed 14 times in her home on Christmas Eve and left for dead.
Durban – The sister of a Pietermaritzburg woman who was stabbed 14 times in her home on Christmas Eve and left for dead, says she has been left “broken”.
The 36-year-old mother of three young children was asleep in her Willowfountain home in the KwaTomu area when she was attacked.
The victim’s sister, who asked not to be named, said her sister had a 2-year-old child with her suspected attacker and they had separated last February.
She said he broke the door down to get into the house at about 10pm.
She said the children were asleep in the other room when he dragged her sister into the dining room, held her face down and stabbed her 14 times in the back of her neck.
About two hours later, he dragged her out of the house and went back inside, her sister said.
“She crawled to the nearest house to ask for help. She broke the door handle at the first house and no one woke up. She went to the second house and broke the glass door with a stone and asked for help.”
The injured woman asked her neighbour to check on her children. The sister said when the neighbour went to the house, the attacker had gone.
“At the hospital, my sister told us that she cried for help for two hours.”
She said her sister was discharged from hospital on December 31 and was slowly healing.
“She’s a broken woman. She was struggling to move her legs or even to go to the toilet at some point and even now she still struggles. One of her arms doesn’t work so she is like a paralysed person.”
She said her sister had not yet seen the wounds on her neck. What happened to her sister was painful and traumatising and the family would stick together and get through it, she said.
“We will survive through it, that’s what I know for sure.”
KwaZulu-Natal Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza has called on police to make a swift arrest.
In a statement on Wednesday, the department said it was alleged that the suspect attempted to rekindle the relationship and stabbed the woman after she refused.
The MEC said the woman was lucky to have survived.
“As the province, we have been dealing with a lot of incidents of gender-based violence and we want to see all those involved being arrested and successfully prosecuted.”
Khoza called on the public to work with police to ensure the perpetrator is arrested.
“We need communities to work closely with law enforcement agencies, government and all other sectors to end the scourge of gender-based violence.“
The department has dispatched a team of social workers to provide psycho-social support to the victim and her children.
Police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm was being investigated by Plessislaer SAPS.
The Mercury
