Haunted by her brutal ex-lover's death threat

Every day, Tina Mbili remembers these horrifying words: "Bitch, I will kill you."

Michael Padayachee, her former lover and the father of her child, hurled them at her in a crowded courtroom in 2015 as he was sentenced to 24 years behind bars for attacking her, assaulting and trying to kidnap their baby daughter, and an unrelated assault on a man in a tavern.

"I live in fear every day," Mbili said this week. "Michael Padayachee has guaranteed me that he will never be at peace until I am dead. When I hear stories like Karabo's, anxiety comes back."

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Karabo Mokoena's burnt body was found in a field in Johannesburg last week. Her boyfriend, who has allegedly confessed to setting her body alight after finding her dead in his flat, has been charged with murder.

Mbili has often changed jobs and her cellphone number since she was attacked in 2012. She also moved house three times. "I cannot be stable. I look over my shoulder all the time," she said.

In 2012, Padayachee assaulted Mbili and left for her for dead at a park in Phoenix, Durban. Her battered face shocked the nation when it appeared on the front page of sister newspaper The Times.

Mbili had obtained an interim protection order against Padayachee a month before, just after he had tried to kidnap their daughter. He was out on bail at the time, after trying to take the toddler by force and throwing her over a 4m gate.

Over the years, Padayachee has harassed Mbili by phone and via Facebook - even from his cell.

"We have to be paranoid," said Mbili. "When he comes out, what's going to happen? The fear doesn't get any less."

Mbili does not regret being open about her abusive relationship or getting protection orders, even if she had once labelled them a waste of time.

"It carried weight in the court case. It was my word against his and those documents had details of the many times he dragged me and tried to kill me.

"I urge women in similar situations to seek help."

Mbili often has headaches because of the injuries Padayachee inflicted on her. She has lost some vision in one eye. But still she counts herself as lucky.

"I look at Karabo and I see me. He left me there knowing I would die. It could have been me. And sadly it will be many more South African women," she said.

sub_head_start Grisly death for wives and girlfriends sub_head_end

• Former Soweto community radio presenter Donald "Donald Duck" Sebolai was sentenced last year to 20 years' imprisonment after murdering his girlfriend, Rachel "Dolly" Tshabalala. Sebolai, 40, stabbed Tshabalala, 32, repeatedly during a row at his home in Soweto in 2014. She bled to death.

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• Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his home in Pretoria. He said he had mistaken her for an intruder and shot her through his bathroom door, hitting her in the hip, arm and head. He was convicted of culpable homicide in 2014, but in December 2015 the Supreme Court of Appeal changed the conviction to murder.

• Johan Kotze, known as the Modimolle Monster, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his stepson, Conrad Bonnette, and the rape of his former wife Ina Bonnette, as well as kidnapping and assault in 2013. Kotze shot Conrad in his mother's house while she was there. She was bound, tortured and raped, and needed reconstructive surgery afterwards.

• Port Elizabeth businessman Christopher Panayiotou is standing trial for conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping, robbing and killing his wife, Jayde Panayiotou, two years ago. Jayde, 28, was abducted outside her townhouse complex in Kabega Park and her body was found in a field near KwaNobuhle in Uitenhage. His case resumes on June 12.

• The body of Fatima Choonara, 28, was found in her Polokwane home after what was initially thought to be a robbery. Her husband, Rameez Patel, was arrested for her murder last year. Last month he refused to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

• Former ANC Youth League official Patrick Wisani was sentenced to 20 years in prison for beating his girlfriend, Nosipho Mandleleni, to death with a sjambok and a broomstick in their flat in Yeoville in 2015.

• Pretoria model Zanele Khumalo, 18, who was five months pregnant, was murdered by her boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, Thato Kutumela. He is now serving a 20-year jail term for the 2011 murder.

• Property executive Jason Rohde was arrested for allegedly murdering his wife, Susan, at the Spier wine estate in Stellenbosch in June last year.

The case continues.