Cape Town - A Gugulethu family are struggling to make sense of the death of their 86-year-old grandmother, whose body was found entangled in a shirt with one eye gouged out.
Charlotte Madolo’s body was found in her bedroom at the weekend by her 12 and 13-year-old granddaughters, who couldn’t bear the trauma after the grim discovery of their grandmother’s body.
Madolo’s distraught daughter, Lindelwa Bovana, said she was called by the two children while attending a funeral of a relative not far from her home.
Bovana said the two children told her to quickly come home, because they noticed that their grandmother was not well.
“My mother was epileptic, so I thought she had suffered from it and fell from her bed, while we were away at the funeral,” Bovana said.
She said as they approached their home, the children described the horrific scene, and that her eye seemed gouged out, and when they arrived people had already started to fill the house and the street.
“When I entered the house, my mother was already covered. My heart was torn apart,” Bovana said.
“I know she fought for her life, that is why she was entangled with a shirt, and her eye gouged out.”
She said her mother was a “soft-spoken” woman, maybe that is why no one heard her cry during the incident.
Bovana described her mother as a disciplined woman, a mother who cared and wanted the best for her children, and her community.
Police spokesperson FC Van Wyk said the police were investigating a murder case after Madolo’s body was found by her daughter who immediately informed the police at about 3.39pm in NY 132 Gugulethu on Saturday.
Van Wyk said sterling investigation by Gugulethu detectives led to the arrest of a 48 year-old man in connection with the murder. He was due to appear in court once charged.
When the Cape Argus visited Madolo’s home on Sunday, community members, neighbours, ward councillor, Bongani Ngcombolo, community policing forum (CPF) representative and a social worker visited the family expressing their condolences.
Neighbour Nomathamsanqa Ntshanga, 66, said Madolo was a quiet woman, who was always in her home. “A woman who loved her family.”
Some of the residents gathered outside Madolo’s home, called for the government to bring back the death penalty saying they are tired of living in fear in their own communities.
CPF representative, Freda Andjene, urged the police, authorities and residents to assist each other with safety measures.
The incident happened a day after the police released crime statistics, stating that out of the 6 859 people killed in the country, 902 of them were women and 352 were children.
Parliament’s police portfolio committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson said she was seriously concerned about the high number of gender-based violence (GBV) cases, despite the marked decline in numbers, after a briefing from Police Minister Bheki Cele and police management on the third-quarter crime statistics for 2021/22.
Joemat-Pettersson said the committee highlighted the ongoing importance of time, strategies and resources to defeat GBV.
“While we welcome the 9% decrease in sexual offences during the quarter, the reality is that 14 188 is alarmingly high incidence and requires concerted effort to overcome.
“In line with this, the committee has emphasised the need for strengthened collaboration between police and the community to enhance the fight against GBV,” she said.
She said the committee was of the view that the urgent passing of the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill, which would allow buccal samples to be taken from everyone convicted and imprisoned for any offence listed in Schedule 8 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 (which includes murder, rape, sexual assault, any sexual offence against a child or a person who is mentally disabled, child stealing), will add to the arsenal in the fight against GBV.
Anyone with information can contact Crime Stop anonymously at 08600 10111 or via the MySAPSApp.