Slain soldier ‘lived in fear’

THE female soldier killed in the DRC this past weekend, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, had lived in fear of him, believing he might shoot her because he intimidated her with his gun every time they had an argument, her father said yesterday.

Private Nomathemba Ngeleka, of the SANDF 5 South African infantry Battalion in Ladysmith, died on arrival in hospital in the DRC on Friday.

She had been deployed to the central African country as part of a peace-keeping mission.

Ngeleka had left her boyfriend weeks before because of his allegedly threatening behaviour.

She is originally from the KZN South Coast, and had been with the army since 2011. The two had been deployed to the DRC in June.

No details have been released about her boyfriend who was part of the same unit in Ladysmith, but had been deployed to a different part of DRC.

In a statement released by the SANDF, it said then man shot himself and is in a critical condition in hospital.

Ngeleka’s father, Nkosinathi Ngeleka, said the two had recently broken up, but the boyfriend was still trying to repair the relationship.

He said although they knew the couple were having problems, they were shocked by the turn of events.

“I know he is from Pretoria but not sure where. He had visited my home on several occasions and I have always thought he was a nice boy,” Ngeleka said.

“After they had broken up, he called my wife and asked her to talk with our daughter to help them get back together.

“My wife tried but our daughter said she had had enough because every time they argued, he would produce his gun and she was tired of living such a fearful life,” said Ngeleka.

“He also called me and I told him he should give my daughter some space. We were expecting her to come home in November to talk to her face to face,” he said.

He said they were shocked to receive another phone call from him last week, saying he would be flying to where Ngeleka was based.

“That frightened us… and we asked him not to go to her and to let her work through this alone,” said Ngeleka.

Their fears were confirmed on Friday when social workers called them asking for directions to their home. “They told us what had happened… it was very painful.”