Pretoria - A 47-year-old woman was gunned down by her boyfriend in full of view of her 12-year-old son following an argument in the early hours of on Monday.
Elizabeth Machaka, a nurse at Stanza Bopape Clinic in Mamelodi East, was apparently involved in a heated argument with her boyfriend, Peter Motlala.
He shot Machaka with a gun which belonged to the nurse’s previous boyfriend, before turning the gun on himself. Machaka’s ex had been dead for about five years, and the nurse had been left in possession of the pistol.
Daniel Machaka, Elizabeth’s younger brother, said her son was deeply disturbed by the shooting and had been taken for counselling to help him deal with it. It was unclear if he would be able to write his year-end exams.
“The pair had been in a fairly unstable relationship but this was not something we thought would happen. He took the gun which belonged to Elizabeth’s former lover who died. He took it and shot her with it,” Daniel said.
The argument was triggered when Elizabeth questioned Motlala about money that had gone missing., he said. “He didn’t respond well to it. Elizabeth had also asked him about the gun and its whereabouts after it went missing from where it was usually kept, but he said he didn’t know about it.”
The couple had been living together for more than two years with Elizabeth’s son from a previous relationship. “She was funny and always had people around her because they enjoyed her company,” a teary Daniel said.
His sister’s blood had been cleaned up after police left the scene, Daniel said, while Motlala’s blood was to be cleaned up by his family when they arrived.
Motlala’s uncle, Lazarus Sehalahala, said he received a call from Motlala’s sister informing him that he intended to kill himself.
“He said we would find him dead if nothing was done to help him, but we thought it was a drunken rant because he was a bit of a drinker,” said Sehalahala.
“This morning I got a call while I was on my way to work that something tragic had happened to Peter and I needed to come to Mamelodi,” said the 63-year-old. “He wasn’t trigger-happy so this has come as a shock to all of us,” he said.
Pretoria News