Ex-lover kills son before hanging himself
Victim’s mom had protection order against ‘abusive’ man
“If he was tired of life, why didn’t he just take his own life and leave my child?”
These are the words of a grieving mother of a five-yearold boy who was found dead on Wednesday, about 400m from where his father was found hanging a day earlier, in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga.
The parents and the boy are not being named to protect the identity of the child’s 11-yearold sibling.
The mother said she did not think that when she saw her son and his father on Friday near his school where he was doing grade R, it would be the last time she saw her son alive.
The woman, who had a protection order against her exlover, said she had decided to end their relationship in December after 11 years together because he was abusive and would hit her in front of their children.
She said the protection order allowed him to continue seeing the children but he would need to make arrangements first.
She said she had no reason to believe he would harm his own child when she saw him drive off with her son on Friday, despite him not making prior arrangements.
“I thought he was a really good father. He was meant to bring the child back that evening, but I waited for him and he didn’t show up. I tried to call him but he wasn’t picking up. I did not call him on Saturday and Sunday because I thought my son was safe.
“He sometimes spends weekends with the children.
“On Monday, he (the father) went to his mother’s house and told our daughter (who had gone to the place by herself) that he would bring our son back on the day. I had no problem with that.
“When I returned from work, I found my place upside down; my clothes were missing and he had not brought [the child] back. I just knew he had been to my place.”
She said she called him and he admitted to have taken her clothes and of the little boy.
“I had involved the police because I hoped he would at least listen to them. After negotiating with him, he told us that he would bring the child and my clothes on Tuesday. But later that evening his mother called to tell me that he said he was going to poison the child and kill himself because he wasn’t going to face arrest.
“I panicked. I wondered if he had in fact poisoned my child.”
She said the community and police helped search for her son whose posters were all over town and on social media.
Her son was found in an open space along Van de Venter Street near a Catholic church.
“When I was told by the police that my son was found, I was hopeful that he was alive, only to learn that I had just been a few meters away from his body and we did not see it.”
On Thursday the father’s family said they were too distraught to speak on the matter.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Col Donald Mdhluli said police were investigating a case of murder and an inquest. He confirmed the father was found hanging from a tree at a hockey field belonging to Hoërskool Hertzog.