Murdered mom's family urges cops to take 'blatant attack' on women seriously

File picture: Pexels

File picture: Pexels

Published May 23, 2019

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Pretoria - With femicide statistics stating 1 in 4 women were killed by their intimate partners - the bereaved family of slain Lesego Mabuse has called for the justice system to start taking gender-based killings more seriously.

Mabuse 28, a mother of two children aged 3 and 6, was brutally murdered and her body dumped in a veld in De Wildt, North West, allegedly by her husband, in January this year.

She was initially reported missing on 4 January by her husband, who alleged he had not seen her since she left the day before.

Her cousin Marumo Mokwena, however, said the husband eventually confessed to killing his niece and even led the police to the area where her body was found a few days following the alleged disappearance.

Mokwena said the husband shot his cousin five times in the car, after leaving their home in Lotus Gardens, before driving to a secluded area in De Wildt just outside Pretoria to bury the body.

He said the family and community members were dismayed with how the matter was being handled by the police and justice system.

“We understand investigations take time but we experience women being killed in our community’s every day now and it appears to be taken lightly by the justice system.”

“It's unfortunate that not all monsters wear a tag. But we thought Lesego was in a good marriage and never saw this coming.”

Mokwena pleaded with the justice system and the police to start taking the ‘blatant attack’ on women seriously and perhaps even looking at having separate courts to deal with this issue.

The matter was postponed to 30 May, after the court was informed the husband had been admitted to a local hospital and would not be able to attend proceedings.

He is yet to plead but is charged with murder and defeating the ends of justice.

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Pretoria News

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