Family struggles to cope with the death of their daughter lost to GBV

Eunice Matlamela, mother of Palesa, 28, who was allegedly brutally assaulted by her boyfriend in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, is struggling to cope sincePalesa’s death in September.

The boyfriend allegedly dropped her at Edenvale Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries after the alleged brutal assault.

Speaking to TimesLIVE, Eunice’s sister and Palesa’s aunt Mmaphuti Maboya said it would take the family longer to get used to her not being around.

“ My sister is struggling to cope. This is not something we are going to get used to. This will be the first Christmas without Palesa,” she said.

Maboya said the outstanding post-mortem results and the case postponement worsened their pain.

“You can feel it is going to drag on and the longer it takes, the more the pain,” she said.

The family decided to not talk about the court incident  to save themselves from pain.

“It is a matter of going a day not talking about it, not talking about her, but the following day it all comes back,” said Maboya. 

She said gender-based violence (GBV) cases are prevalent in South Africa, and when they read stories about women being abused and killed by their significant others, it reminds them of Palesa and how she suffered before her death. 

“It is heartbreaking. You only know how it feels when you are in the moment. We are preparing for Christmas and New Year and we will go home.  It is one of those moments where you look into the room and realise she is not there. It starts to hit us so badly. It is a tough situation,” said Maboya.

She said her sister was trying to remain strong but she was struggling. 

The case against the suspect accused of killing Palesa was postponed to January.

“The family wants to start working on healing. It will take a long time to heal from something like this. We don’t know what the post-mortem results are going to say. When you get the results you start thinking about the pain the child went through before she passed,” Maboya said.

Eunice told TimesLIVE at the time of the incident her daughter was a bubbly woman.

“Everybody knew her smile, her bubbliness. Even at the church and in the family, she never had a fight,” said Eunice.

TimesLIVE

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