Last phone call of murdered Precious
The family of student Precious Ramabulana recall her panicky final phone call before she was brutally murdered
PHONE calls in the dead of night are always enough to set nerves on edge. At best, they’re the wrong number – at worst, they mean terrible news. And the phone that shrilled in the dead of night on 25 November kicked off a sequence of events that would shatter a family’s lives forever.
Mavis Sitholimela hadn’t been expecting a call from her niece Precious Ramabulana. But when she heard the young woman’s voice on the other end of line, the last lingering traces of sleep vanished from her mind. Suddenly she was wide awake. Someone was trying to force their way into her room, Precious (21) said. She was scared, she said, terrified of what might happen.
“She said she could see a hand on her window,” Mavis says. “She told me she called the police but couldn’t get through to 10111. I also tried calling, but I couldn’t get through either.” That was the last time she’d speak to Precious.
A few hours later there was another phone call – this time it was the police telling Mavis that Precious had been murdered. She’d been raped and stabbed 52 times in the little room she called home near the Capricorn Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College in Polokwane, Limpopo, where she was a final-year public management student.
Her neighbours had heard her screams and called the police to the room in the Ga-Joel Section in the town of Mokomene near Polokwane. She was clinging to life when they arrived, and her final words were “072”, part of a phone number she was unable to complete before taking her last breath.
Precious’ murder – which came just as 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children kicked off – made national headlines and shocked the country.
Yet another young woman snatched away in the prime of her life. Yet another victim of senseless violence. Yet another family left mourning the loss of a bright young soul.
Mavis is speaking to us today as Precious’ mother, Peggie, is too distraught to talk. “Last December Precious told us she’d found an affordable place to rent, which was a 10-minute walk to the [satellite] Ramokgopa campus,” Mavis says.
Her family weren’t convinced the room was the safest option because there was no security barrier on the doors or bars on the windows. “But Precious assured us she’d be fine because it was better than where she’d been staying, which was too far from campus.”
But in the end it proved to be a disaster.
PRECIOUS was the light of her family, a young woman who radiated positive energy. She was planning to build a new house for her unemployed and disabled mother who survived on a R2 000 monthly disability grant.
“Precious would never bother her mother for anything,” says Mavis, adding the student had offered to make extra money by doing people’s makeup to ease the strain on her family’s finances.
The day before she was murdered was the last time Precious spoke to her mom. “Peggie told her she’d be praying her last exam goes well. She told Precious she was proud of her hard work and loves her dearly,” says Mavis, who cares for her sister.
She hopes Peggie can find some peace in what turned out to be her final conversation with her daughter.
Knowing she won’t be joining them for the festive season has been hard for the grieving family, adds Precious’ uncle, Ntsieni. “The last time we spoke she was telling me she was looking forward to the festive season and her plans to further her studies next year,” he says.
His heart aches for Peggie. “Her mother is trying her best to accept what’s happened, but it’s really difficult. Peggie had such high hopes for her ambitious daughter.
“Precious had such a promising future ahead of her.”
SHE came home to Nzhelele village near Louis Trichardt to visit her family during the September holidays, not long after the murder of University of Cape Town student Uyinene
Mrwetyana (19), who was raped and killed by Luyanda Botha in a Claremont post office where he worked.
“She was devastated by that case,” Ntsieni recalls. “It hurts so much that she also became a victim of gender-based violence. It’s the most unimaginable thing.”
“Her mother says she wishes all of this was a nightmare she’ll wake up from so she can give her daughter a hug,” Mavis says.
It’s not just Precious’ family that’s feeling the loss. Beverly Ndou (23) says the murder of her best friend has left a gaping hole in her life. They grew up together in nearby Maname Paradise village and were like sisters.
“I remember we pleaded with our mothers to send us to the same high school. After I finished matric, Precious cried about how lonely she was going to be at school, and I reassured her I’d still see her at weekends.
“I’ll miss her caring nature. She was so wise and mature, sometimes it seemed like she was older than me.”
Precious was passionate about her studies and loved student life, Beverly adds. “We’d started planning an outfit for her graduation ceremony in April. She’d asked me to look around for a designer who could sew a dress with a muwenda (traditional Venda attire) print.”
Four days after her rape and murder, police arrested a suspect, Aubrey Manaka (28).
He was found at his parents’ home in Nyakeleng village in Botlokwa, about 120km west of Mokomene, says police spokesman brigadier Vish Naidoo.
Aubrey was allegedly in possession of blood-stained clothes, a phone believed to have belonged to Precious and possibly the murder weapon.
‘She called the police but couldn’t get through’