'We asked her so many times to leave that man' - family of slain Soweto woman

The four-year-old daughter of Sanelisiwe Mfaba - stabbed to death and dumped near railway lines in Dobsonville, Soweto, last week - is struggling to come to terms with the fact her mother will never come home.

After she was stabbed repeatedly, the 28-year-old's body was found by a passer-by in a plastic bag, her hands and feet bound.

Her brother, Muzi Ngcobo, told the Sunday Times how he broke the news to Mfaba's daughter, Katlego.

"I was holding her in my arms, and I knew I had to tell her the truth, but in a way that she can understand. I told her that she will never see mommy when she's awake, but when she's sleeping her mommy will visit her in her dreams. I was trying to teach her that her mom is in heaven."

Mfaba's boyfriend, taxi driver Tshepo Mashego, is behind bars and faces a charge of murder.

Ngcobo said his sister's death was the final act in a relationship underscored by domestic abuse and violence. He alleged that Mashego had assaulted his sister in 2017 but she dropped charges against him.

"She opened a case of attempted murder, but he came grovelling and apologising and she took him back because of the child. We asked her so many times to leave that man. She would tell me she was thinking about her daughter, and she was trying to maintain the image of the relationship for the child. She died trying to keep up that facade."

On Friday, Mfaba's family took her body to the place where she was killed to retrieve her spirit. She was buried yesterday in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal.

Mashego will appear in Roodepoort magistrate's court to apply for bail on July 29.