‘Moesha didn’t deserve this’: family of teen 'stabbed, beaten by boyfriend'

Less than five months before she was left bloody and bruised — with a crude swear word carved into her forehead — Moesha Magotha suffered a devastating blow when her mother died in a car crash.

Now, the 18-year-old from Port Elizabeth, who was in the car with her mother at the time of the accident, is fighting for her own life in Livingstone Hospital.

She is in a critical condition, HeraldLIVE reported at the weekend.

Days before Magotha was stabbed and beaten, she had allegedly received threatening messages from a man in Alexandria, a 100km from Port Elizabeth, her sister Gail said on Friday.

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Gail said her sister and the man had been in a relationship, but Moesha had not known he was married. When she queried his marital status, after being told he had a wife, the man said people were lying and he was single.

He continued to pursue Magotha.

In May, after her mother’s death, she moved back to Port Elizabeth from Alexandria, where she had been living.

When Gail, 22, spoke about the attack on her younger sister, she wavered between anger and sadness.

She said she cannot believe anyone could hurt her sister in such a cruel manner.

“He [the perpetrator] doesn’t deserve to live,” Gail said on Friday, the same day a 25-year-old suspect, Sean Nicolas Hendricks, appeared in the Alexandria magistrate’s court.

Magotha, the third-eldest of seven siblings,  was rescued on last Thursday when police were alerted to a disturbance in a house in Kwanonqubela township in Alexandria.

In photographs seen by Weekend Post, the pretty young woman’s face was so badly injured she was unrecognisable.

Magotha’s eyes were bruised, her face swollen, and she had blood below both eyes, on her forehead and above her lip.

She also had at least 20 stab wounds on her shoulders, arms and legs.  

Most shocking, however, was the four-letter swear word carved on her forehead.

Gail, who described her sister as a soft and intelligent person, said the family is still mystified about her movements leading up to the attack.

“We didn’t know she had left Port Elizabeth to go to Alexandria until we got a message from him [the man who had been messaging her], saying she was in Alexandria,” Gail said.

The sisters moved to Alexandria with their mother in 2008 when she married a man living there.

They had, however, both lived with their aunt in Port Elizabeth while they finished school at Arcadia High.

Thereafter they again lived in Alexandria, returning to their aunt after their mother’s death.

Gail said the teenager loved doing make-up and hair and worked in a salon in Alexandria before they moved back to Port Elizabeth.

Magotha’s older brother, Cerwin, 23, said his family was stressed and sad.

“She was kind, always quiet, always indoors, never angry.

“She did good things for other people. She didn’t deserve this,” Cerwin said.

Magotha’s close friend, Shanace Potgieter, 20, also said she was a kind person.

Potgieter said the attack was more horrific because Magotha was still recovering from losing her mother.

Police spokesperson Capt Mali Govender confirmed Hendricks had appeared in court on Friday and had been denied bail.

He is facing attempted murder charges.

“The suspect was arrested after a member of the public reported a suspicious noise  coming from a house in the Kwanonqubela township in Alexandria.

“On arrival at the scene, the suspect was in the company of a severely beaten female.

“The 18-year-old victim was taken to a local hospital and later transferred to a hospital in Port Elizabeth.

“She is in a critical condition,” Govender said.

Xolisa Runeli, EFF’s councillor in the Ndlambe municipality, led a group of about 300 people who protested outside the Alexandria magistrate’s court on Friday.

The protesters were calling for bail to be denied.

Runeli said the protest had been prompted by the brutality of the attack.

“It was the brutality, the horrific pictures we saw. He went as far as branding her. His intention was to kill her.

“He saw her as if she had no value. Who could live with the word p**s carved in her head?” Runeli said.

He said protests would take place every time the man appeared in court.

“He was denied bail. We will be back on October 27. We will be there throughout.

“We hope she will recover. One of our comrades has been in touch with her brother and we will help with anything they need,” Runeli said.

HeraldLIVE