‘The day I lost hope in SA’
Friend of slain woman soldier pens heartbreaking open letter to Ramaphosa, asking: where is the law?
When SA National Defence Force officer Phumza Skade failed to fetch her baby from day care, the nursery school staff looked after the little girl for six days — unaware that Skade had been murdered.
Skade, 36, was shot twice in the head, prompting a former teacher, with whom she had stayed until matric, to write a heart-rending open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In the letter, an upset Andiswa Matshoba asks Ramaphosa: “What crime have we [women] committed for us to die like this?”
Skade’s body was found by a jogger on a gravel road off the M17 in Motherwell, with two bullet wounds to the head.
The callous murder has left two little girls without a mother.
Now, as Skade’s family members prepare for her funeral tomorrow, they are demanding answers.
Skade’s body was found, without any identification documents on her, on February 12, but she was only identified four days later after her worried SANDF colleagues reported her missing.
Her family was notified the next day.
Last week, Matshoba, 50, poured out her heartbreak on Facebook, asking Ramaphosa to intervene on behalf of the country’s women.
Matshoba, who taught at the now-closed Mlungisi Perfector Senior Secondary School in Uitenhage, said she considered Skade, whom she had first met when Skade was in grade 8, as a daughter.
“I was her English teacher and debate mentor.
“I took Phumza as my daughter because her mother did not work and she stayed with me until she matriculated,” Matshoba said.
She said she was proud of the woman Skade had become.
“I was told by someone via Facebook on Tuesday February 18, about the passing of Phumza,” Matshoba said.
She had then confirmed the information with the family.
Matshoba, a mother of three daughters, said she was tired of living in fear.
“I wrote the Facebook post on Friday, following the [state of the nation address], where the main focus seemingly was load-shedding and state capture — yet there is this war against women and children.
“I was coming from an angry place.
“I recalled all the femicides reported in 2019 and how Cyril Ramaphosa and other political leaders were so vocal and eloquent when speaking about femicide but, thereafter, nothing was done and the deaths of women continued,” she said.
“It has gotten to a point where we can’t trust any male, even those close to you.
“We are all girls in my house and we constantly have to lock ourselves inside to ensure our safety.”
Matshoba said she had not expected her post to be shared so widely — 2,600 times.
In it, she wrote: “Where is the law, Mr President?
“The police will catch the culprit and the courts with all the laws in this country will protect the culprit more than the victim.
“The day that Phumza was killed, was the day I totally lost hope for South Africa.
“We fear every man or boy we see, Mr President.
“We want to stop living locked [up], ourselves and children indoors for the rest of our lives.”
Skade’s brother, Thembalethu Madlavu, said when he heard — on February 17 — that his sister had not fetched his 18-month-old niece from day care, he knew something was terribly wrong.
“I know my sister. When it comes to her children she will cross the ocean,” he said.
“She would never leave her child without notice, let alone for days on end.”
Madlavu said Skade’s elder daughter, 11, who was with her father when Skade went missing, was now living with her father permanently while the 18-month old was with Skade’s family.
The day care owner, who asked not to be identified, said she had initially not been concerned when Skade failed to fetch the child.
“Phumza usually leaves her child with me over the weekend and sometimes during the week for a day or two when she is working or when she knows she will be out with friends, [but] when I didn’t hear from her on the Thursday, I sent one of my kids to her house but there was no-one at home,” the 63-year-old woman said.
She had sent her daughter back the next day, but there had still been no-one there.
“I had a few old baby clothes lying around, so I was able to change her clothes and wash the items she came with,” she said.
The woman, who operates the day care facility from her home in Walmer Township, said when she was visited that weekend by Skade’s SANDF colleagues, she became worried.
It was not until the 17th, when the family came to fetch the toddler, that she was told of Skade’s murder.
The woman said when Skade’s supervisor and sister came to her home, they had cried when they saw the toddler sitting in the lounge.
Madlavu said Skade had been dropped off at her home in Walmer Links by a colleague at about noon on February 12 and, according to the colleague, was planning to visit someone in New Brighton.
He said she had not been seen after that.
“When she failed to report to work for two days, her colleagues went to her home,” he said.
“The neighbours said they had not seen her since Wednesday.
“Her colleagues then started calling hospitals and the police.”
The SANDF members identified her body on Sunday February 16.
Skade’s mother, Vuyiswa Jezi, 68, said: “Even today I am beside myself, I never expected something like this to happen.”
Skade’s colleague Ziyanda Gwaqu, 35, said her death was a shock to her friends in the defence force.
“She was not an ordinary person, she was a soldier,” she said, adding that she would never rest while Skade’s killer was at large.
Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge confirmed that Skade’s body was found along the M17 at about 3.35pm on February 12 by a man who was jogging by.
“The case has been taken over by the organised crime investigation unit,” he said.