Three days ago, Shadi Rapitso's neighbour came to her house. He declared his undying love for her and told her that if she didn't take him as her lover, he would kill himself.
Yesterday morning, he arrived at the e.tv 3rd Degree journalist's flat, took her next door, where he held her hostage, before fatally stabbing her in the neck.
Then he stabbed himself several times in the chest with a kitchen knife.
The man, believed to be an SABC employee, has been arrested and is under police guard in hospital.
He cannot be named until he appears in court on Monday.
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The drama at Rapitso's upmarket secure suburban complex unfolded around 8am yesterday as she was preparing to leave for work.
Yesterday would have been a big day for the 29-year-old as she was finalising an important investigation she had been working on.
But Rapitso never made it to the office. Instead she came face to face with her stalker. He had lived in an adjacent flat on the ground level of the Calaids complex in Montgomery Park.
He took her to his home, where he attacked her.
Rapitso was found lying in the bathroom and the man was in the passage with the kitchen knife he had used to kill her just metres away.
Dlamini said police were alerted when neighbours heard screaming and called the police.
Rapitso's family, from Mabopane in North West, were told late yesterday about her death.
Reeling from the news, a spokesman, who did not want to be named, said they were struggling to come to terms with her murder.
A close friend of Rapitso's, Tankiso Komane, told the Saturday Star that the man had been stalking Rapitso for a while.
"They were neighbours. They knew each other and went out on two or three dates. He phoned her a lot. She told him that she didn't want him as a lover about a month ago. He was begging and crying, obsessed and mad.
"Then on Wednesday he came over and they were talking outside.
"He was saying that if she didn't want him, he would kill himself. She didn't have any love for him in that way. She was very concerned about him and tried to get him some help."
She said Rapitso had not applied for a restraining order against him because he had not been violent.
"This is the last thing you would expect. She was the nicest person. She wouldn't hurt a fly. She always wanted to do good - and in a way that was her downfall.
Komane described Rapitso as a very reserved person who wouldn't allow anybody into her space.
"Some people mistook it for being shy. But she was just laid back."
Rapitso began her career in journalism at the Sowetan before joining City Press.
She later joined Drum magazine and then the SABC. Four months ago she joined e.tv as a senior producer.
In 2005 she was named the best regional print feature writer in the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards for the northern region. In the same year she was commended in the Mondi Shanduka Awards for her entries, which were reminiscent of the late Henry Nxumalo of Drum.
Debora Patta, executive producer at 3rd Degree, said the station had hired Rapitso because she had shown great promise.
"Ironically, today would have been her day. She had been working very hard on an investigative story. Today was her day to crack it. But she didn't turn up for the shoot. She was incredibly reliable and that's how we were alerted to the incident."
Patta described Rapitso as a very quiet, humble, elegant and beautiful woman.
"She was very reserved, and her colleagues were getting to know her. She was someone you wanted in a newsroom because she would stay calm."
Sunday Independent editor Makhudu Sefara, who was news editor at the time of Mapitso's stint at City Press, described her as a "brilliant, beautiful writer".
"She had an amazing way with words. She was very committed. I would ask her to attend assignments in the early mornings, and she did. She spent nights in places where other journos wouldn't be. She was a complete writer," he said.
City Press deputy news editor Melanie-Ann Feris, who worked with Rapitso in 2006 and 2007, said: "The one person that you don't expect anything bad to happen to - because she is so sweet - dies in this horrible manner."
"Shadi was easy to love, and many of her former colleagues at City Press adored her. So much so that when news of her gruesome killing was announced to staff yesterday, many burst into tears," Ferris said.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Saturday Star on October 24, 2009
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