Friends promise to find the killer
Funeral hears of model’s last hours
The family of model Lebo Mathuloe, who was found dead at a golf estate last Monday, is fortunate to have received a call from her before she died.
This was the message neighbours delivered to Mathuloe’s mother Susan during her funeral on Saturday.
Speaking at 24-year-old Mathuloe’s funeral at the Azaadville Hall on the West Rand, neighbour Nanikie Ruele said many women were being sought everywhere.
“We could still be looking for her, but because she is from a deep-rooted religious family, God gave her the wisdom to make a phone call [on that fateful day]. We did not go in and out of mortuaries looking for her,” Ruele said.
Though police have opened an inquest following Mathuloe’s death, her family believe she was murdered in Hartbeespoort, North West.
However, the Pecanwood Golf Estate management said the model stabbed herself to death.
Mathuloe’s friends, who paid tribute to her during their friend’s funeral, vowed to fight for justice. “Lebo was an amazing soul ... To the friends, more than anything ... we need to work so that we can bring the person who did this to book.
“We could save a whole lot of other lives. We need to fight what is happening [cases of femicide] because it is on the rise,” said one friend.
Sunday World yesterday reported that police found traces of an illicit drug in Mathuloe’s blood stream and that a second postmortem had been ordered on her body before it was released for burial.
According to the paper, Mathuloe had used a pair of scissors to cut herself and later grabbed a knife she used to stab her half-naked body.
This was after she had apparently been found by security guards at the estate “incoherent and upset”. She was taken to a clubhouse where she allegedly took her own life. North West police spokesman Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone said postmortem results would not be released to the media and would be presented in court.