Kimberley - A 27-year-old woman was stabbed to death with an assegai in Galeshewe in the Northern Cape on Sunday morning, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend.
Lerato Olifant was stabbed several times with an assegai after running into a house, apparently to hide from an ex-lover who had dragged her from another house down the street.
The owner of the house where she died in a bloody pool, the 80-year-old Noël Radebe, said on Sunday that he was standing at his front gate at around 7am when the frantic Olifant came running past him and went into his house, desperately screaming for help.
“Moments after the woman, who is not known to me, came running in from the street, a car parked in front of the gate and a man got out. He took an assegai from the boot of the car and pushed me aside, following the woman inside the house. I could see that he was furious,” Radebe said.
Joyce Radebe, who was inside the house at the time of the incident, said she saw the woman hiding behind a pillar in the lounge.
“Then a man came into the house. He was holding an assegai and pushed me aside when I asked him what he wanted in my house. He called to the woman but she kept quiet. He then saw her hiding and she started pleading with him: ‘Lovey, lovey, it is not what you think – let me explain,’ she urged. The man, however, did not listen and started violently stabbing her several times in the chest, while in the lounge. There was blood everywhere,” Joyce said.
She added that the man ran away, while the heavily bleeding Olifant dragged herself to the bedroom, where she died in a pool of blood.
“There was blood everywhere; on the walls, floor, cupboards and bed. I could not stand the smell. It was nauseating,” Joyce said.
Radebe added that the man, who was holding the assegai dripping with blood, got in his car and drove away while shouting at bystanders who were gathering outside that he would “come back and kill them one by one”.
Neighbours said that Olifant was pulled from a house down the street by the suspect, after he apparently found her with another man.
Olifant’s father, Bennie Olifant, comforted his wife in the street, while forensic investigators were on the scene inside.
“Our beautiful daughter, Lerato, left the man (the suspect) a couple of weeks ago but he didn’t want to accept that she didn’t want to be with him anymore. She told us that he abused her and regularly assaulted her. His jealousy is what killed her,” Bennie said.
While police spokeswoman Major Dimakatso Mooi on Sunday indicated that the suspect had not been arrested, family members late Sunday afternoon said that he handed himself over to the police.
Mooi did, however, confirm that police in Galeshewe were investigating a case of murder after a 27-year-old woman was found stabbed multiple times on Sunday morning.
“It is alleged that the boyfriend found the deceased relaxing with friends at a house nearby and forcefully dragged her into his car and drove off.
“A few metres away, the deceased jumped out of the car and ran into the nearest house on Sechoareng Street. The suspect stopped the vehicle and pulled out a sharp object from the boot of his car.
“He followed the deceased into the house where he stabbed her several times. The deceased was declared dead on the scene. The suspect fled the scene with his car,” Mooi said.
She further called on anyone with information about the incident to contact Detective Sergeant Attie Browers of Galeshewe on 053 807 6000 or 082 469 0138.
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