More worried about mom

FEZEKILE Kuzwayo had been on unpaid leave for a month looking after her mother when she died.

The 42-year-old was expected back at school on Monday.

“Her mother’s needs were her priority. Her mother had been suffering from anxiety.

“When I heard of her death, my first thought was of her mother. They had a terrible history of being hounded from place to place. She was a pillar of strength to her mother,” said the headmistress at the Durban pre-primary school where Kuzwayo taught.

News of her sudden death on Sunday came as a shock, she said.

“She was ill but not incapacitated. She was more stressed about her mother’s condition.”

Kuzwayo had been at the exclusive school in Berea for the past three years as a teaching intern.

“While here she did a teaching certificate in early childhood for two years. She was currently in her final year studying for her teaching diploma. She did well in her studies and had potential as a teacher.”

Children adored her and she got on well with her colleagues.

“Although she had been through such a terrible time, anxious about being persecuted and attacked if her identity was revealed, she wanted to put her past behind her and make an independent life for herself.

“She got anxious at times but never played the victim. She did say she lived in a one-bedroom house, but was never a complainer. She looked to the future.” — Taschica Pillay and Bongani Mthethwa