WATCH: A mother's terror - 'I know he will kill me; it's just when'

For nearly six years Julia Nhlapo, 68, has been locking herself away in her little RDP house, terrified of her son who she says abuses and stabs her.

The pensioner said her son, 32, stabbed her many times with a screwdriver and kept threatening to slit her throat with the knife he bought and showed her in January.

Rietgat police in Pretoria had allegedly been asked repeatedly for protection from the nyaope addict and alcohol abuser, but in vain.

"I know he is going to kill me. It is just a matter of when."

Nhlapo leaves her house only to collect her pension or go to church on Sundays as her son breaks in and ransacks her home at every chance.

"For years he has beaten me up. He hurls unspeakable insults at me and accuses me of witchcraft, but still I have to feed him," she said.

Nhlapo is alone. Friends and neighbours have been attacked and told to stay away, she says.

"I watched in horror as he attacked women from church visiting me. I am defeated. I do not know what to do.

"I sleep with my windows closed."

Neighbours said Nhlapo's son terrorised her but they were helpless. A woman said her screams were harrowing.

"One day he will kill her. She needs help urgently," a woman said.

Many parents are abused by children on drugs and some hit back in desperation. Cape Town mother Ellen Pakkies strangled her abusive tik-addict son Adam, 20, in September 2007.