Karabo the victim of 'terrible battering' but unbowed

The "spiritual mother" of murder victim Karabo Mokoena revealed yesterday that the 22-year-old had on one occasion come to her "completely battered".

"She came to my home at 9pm," said Adele Tjale, speaking at Mokoena's memorial service in Diepkloof, Soweto.

"She came to me completely battered.

"She said: 'I don't care who did what . this is the temple of the living God and you cannot change it'."

Tjale said Mokoena had confided in her as a counsellor.

• Red carpet‚ white flowers and pink ribbon at Karabo Mokoena memorialThe Diepkloof Multipurpose Centre in Soweto on Wednesday quickly filled up ahead of the memorial service of Karabo Mokoena.

The young woman was found dead on April 29. Her body was discovered burnt beyond recognition in a ditch in Lyndhurst.

"I looked at her the first time I met her and thought this child is going somewhere. She had dreams, beautiful dreams. She had strength that was unimaginable," said Tjale. She said Mokoena's death left her "livid".

"Too many are making it a norm. It cannot be a norm. Women are quiet. Where are the fathers that can stand in a society and say: 'No more'?" she asked to applause.

• Karabo’s death stirs emotions for another family that suffered similar fateThe death of Karabo Mokoena has stirred emotions for the family of a 19-year-old girl who was stabbed 27 times‚ allegedly by her ex-lover‚ in Soweto last month.

Tjale said she had a lot of questions about Karabo's death.

"I asked myself, did she suffer? I said: 'My God, did she suffer?'"

Mokoena's boyfriend, Sandile Mantsoe, has been arrested.