Joahnnesburg -
The sight of a tiny coffin containing the body of six-month-old baby Bulelwa Ganda left mourners in tears on Sunday.
Dozens of women who had arrived for the funeral service wept openly, many reaching out to one another for comfort, as the baby girl’s pink-and-white coffin with gold handles was carried out of a community hall in Blesbok, Springs, on its way to the gravesite.
The coffin containing Bulelwa’s mother, Manini Princess Ganda, 22, followed behind her daughter’s
.
Together with their coffins was that of Mike Figuiredo, the husband of Princess’s aunt Nokuthula.
Manini, her daughter and Figuiredo, 36, were gruesomely murdered last Saturday, allegedly by the Basotho gang.
Princess and Bulelwa were raped, according to the family.
It is alleged the gang had been terrorising the Everest and Gugulethu informal settlements in Ekurhuleni.
Yesterday, mourners and clerics from various churches called for the arrest of the gang. The clerics called for a peaceful country.
“We pray that those who committed these evil killings are found and sentenced to life. Seeing the girl’s coffin pained me a lot. She didn’t deserve to die in this manner, especially with her mother,” said resident Nonhlanhla Matshika.
“Being a mother myself, the pain that I am seeing here is too unbearable. Every mother is being touched,” she said.
“May you rest in peace. Forgive us if your killings were created because of our sins. It is enough now,” said an elderly woman, who stood and spoke to the three body’s spirits, in accordance with tradition.
At the graveside, Bulelwa’s coffin was placed on top of her mother’s. Both had been draped in pink blankets shortly before they were buried.
Figuiredo’s coffin was lowered into its grave next to the two. All three were lowered simultaneously.
Police spokesman Lungelo Dlamini said they had yet to make an arrest.
The Star