'Why did she have to die so violently?', Khayelitsha grandmother asks

Mavis Gabada buried her only child in 2011. On Wednesday, the 79-year-old will bury her granddaughter, Sibongiseni.

Sibongiseni's body was found stuffed in a sports bag outside a shack in Khayelitsha on May 29, after she had been missing for two weeks.

A man known to the 36-year-old was arrested in connection with her death shortly after her body was discovered, but the charges against him were provisionally withdrawn, compounding her grandmother’s pain.

As if that was not enough, the family had to wait for DNA results to confirm Sibongiseni’s identity.

“At least I will get my granddaughter’s body. I will go to my grave knowing where she lay,” a teary Gabada told TimesLIVE.

“I could not envisage how I would get through this, but God made it possible. The way she died is very gruesome, but there is nothing we can do. I had one child, Thoko, and she died in 2011. Why did she [Sibongiseni] have to die so violently? This is very painful and I am asking God to see us through this.”

Sibongiseni’s younger sister, Nomathamsanqa, 27, spoke about her family’s agony.

“Her body was found on May 29, but she must have died earlier than that,” she said.

“She had her own shack in Green Point, Khayelitsha. She left home around May 7. She said she was going to wash her clothes at her place. We panicked when she didn’t contact us for a week. He phone was on voicemail.”

Nomathamsanqa said she started searching for her sister, but never thought she could be another “femicide statistic”.  

“I went to look for her  and inquired with her friends, but they said they hadn’t seen her in a while,” said Nomathamsanqa.

“I received a chilling call on May 29 informing me that she had been found dead near her boyfriend's shack. My sister’s friends and a member of the community came and told me and my grandmother that they had found her body in a sports bag.

“According to them, there was a bad stench. The community looked inside the bag and found a human body they identified as that of my sister. I went to check. I saw the bag but was not allowed to look inside.”

Nomathamsanqa said Sibongiseni did not have children.

“This is very painful. We have a lot of unanswered questions.

“Who kills a defenceless woman in such a gruesome way? What could have driven this person to kill her? What was the person trying to achieve by leaving her body in a driveway? Did he think a refuse truck would pick up the bag?” asked Nomathamsanqa.

“We want justice for my sister and an end to this scourge. Why should women live in fear of people who say they love them?”

Ward councillor Patrick Mngxunyeni said: “Femicide is every common in Khayelitsha.” 

“I think most incidents emanate from drug abuse. In some incidents you find that both men and women are addicted to drugs.

“When a murders happens, no-one is able to make sense about what could have caused it. We have information that the suspect in this case is on drugs, and his younger brother is allegedly a known gangster in the community.

“This killing was senseless and horrible. Have you ever heard about someone being chopped with an axe and their body squeezed into a sports bag?”

Eric Ntabazalila, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the Western Cape, said prosecutors had decided to review their decision to release the suspect.

“After the provisional withdrawal of charges against the man charged with the murder of Sibongiseni Gabada, the NPA has decided to review that decision as a matter of urgency,” said Ntabazalila.

“We have also requested an urgent further investigation to be done in the case. We will advise the family and the public once we have made our decision after the review.”