Senzo wanted to leave his wife and marry me says Kelly Khumalo
Image: KHAYA NGWENYA
"I have never been loved by anyone the way Senzo loved me."
With these words Kelly Khumalo broke down and cried.
In a dramatic interview with the Sunday Times, Khumalo poured her heart out about the final moments she spent with Senzo Meyiwa.
Khumalo claimed that Meyiwa had planned to marry her and would divorce his estranged wife, Mandisa Mkhize.
"He was willing to do anything for me," she said. "His heart was with me."
The Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain was shot dead last Sunday at Khumalo's mother's house in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg.
"It was a beautiful day that turned into such a tragic and a horrible day," a sobbing Khumalo said.
Her affair with Meyiwa was well documented in the tabloids, and she has been accused of being a home wrecker. She is also facing a court case after she allegedly assaulted Mkhize.
But this week, Khumalo, who was barred from attending yesterday's funeral by her boyfriend's father, Sam Meyiwa, said she was a deeply misunderstood woman grieving the loss of someone she loved.
Khumalo's claims of an impending marriage or Meyiwa's plan to leave his wife could not be validated as his family, including Mkhize, have been preoccupied with arrangements for his funeral.
"I don't even know what to say, but God will fight on my behalf. Senzo's family never loved me to begin with," she said. "But all I know is that Senzo loved me and that he wanted to be part of my life, and I wanted to be part of his life and I will always honour and respect his spirit. What people think of me is not important."
Khumalo claimed that Meyiwa was about to tell his parents he would be divorcing Mkhize "to marry me".
"We were talking about it. Let me tell you what the issue was. He was still busy with Bafana Bafana and never got an opportunity to go down to Durban to tell his family what his plans were, but he told his pastor and they were supposed to have gone next week.
"If you were to see his SMSes - he was talking about it all the time - then you would know."
Khumalo said she and Meyiwa were made for each other.
"I know what I had with Senzo. I have Senzo's heart more than anything. I don't want to be this person who goes around advertising herself. I am also going through pain.
"Senzo knows my pain, I know my pain and everyone knows my pain. I won't go out there to proclaim how I feel. I will always love Senzo. Senzo defied his family not because of me, but because he chose to be with me - because that's where his heart was, with me."
She said she believed Meyiwa was never legally married to Mkhize.
"He told me he paid lobola for her and whatever was required and got engaged to her. And soon after that he was unhappy and I don't know what the problems were, because Senzo was not a person who liked to bad-mouth others, whether he was still with that person or not.
"He would never speak badly about them. He just told me they had unresolved problems, so he just moved back in here with me," she said.
Meyiwa had left his marital home in Buccleuch in June. Khumalo claims Meyiwa sold all his furniture to one of his teammates and rented out his townhouse.
Khumalo talks about Meyiwa's last supper at her mother's house at Zamo Section in Vosloorus.
"We were preparing to leave when there was a guy who pushed the door, brandishing a gun. The other big one followed him. The dreadlocked guy was in front and one wearing a hoodie was behind him.
"They demanded our phones and money. As I ran into my mother's bedroom, the one in a hoodie followed me and we were fighting over the door. He was opening and I was closing. For some reason - I don't know whether he gave up or I won - he left the door."
She said minutes later she came out of the bedroom after she realised that her baby was sleeping in the other bedroom.
"I realised that there were scuffles and fights all over the house. So I tried to help the people to push these guys out of the house. Senzo and Tumelo were fighting the other guy that had pointed the gun at him. My mother and I were pushing the guy in a hoodie.
"The next thing I heard two gunshots. And the third one I didn't hear and it's apparently the one that went to Senzo."
She rushed back into the dining room and saw Meyiwa running towards her.
"I thought he was trying to save me because the killer was still in the house. Then he fell on top of me. When I turned him over I saw the blood, because he was wearing a white T-shirt."
After the attackers had run out with one cellphone, the people at the house tried to rush Meyiwa to hospital.
"We lifted him into the car after struggling because Senzo was a huge man. I was driving while my sister was trying to keep him alive with a friend in the back seat.
"At the hospital we got to the emergency parking lot and went out and called the nurses. They took him to the emergency room and after about 10 to 15 minutes ... that's when he passed on."
Khumalo said she called Meyiwa's wife to inform her of his death. "She said: 'you b*tch you killed him!'"
Khumalo appealed to South Africans to be calm and hope that justice would take its course. "God will reveal to us who killed Senzo and why. My condolences go out to all soccer fans who loved Senzo so much.
"He's in our hearts. He was a fighter and he did everything in his power to remain South Africa's number one.
"I hope and pray that they will remember him for the good person he was."