Elmon Tshikhudo
Six years after she was murdered, Mavis Mathebula of Shigalo outside Malamulele, Limpopo will finally be given a proper burial.
At the time of Mathebula’s disappearance in 2015 her boyfriend claimed she had found a live-in job far from home.
After years passed, the family realised something wasn’t right and reported Mavis missing. What the family didn’t know was that the 39-year-old mother of three was dead and buried in a nearby stream.
It was only in 2019 that it came to light that she had been killed by her boyfriend who later showed the police where he had buried her.
The body was exhumed and sent for DNA tests in 2019 and the results came back on Tuesday. The family is now preparing to bury her.
The dead woman’s aunt Nancy Mathebula said the family was happy that closure was in sight.
“We have gone through the worst. First it was her mysterious disappearance and the lies of the boyfriend. Then we had the trauma of waiting so long to know if we could have the body for burial,” Nancy said.
Nancy told Scrolla.Africa that Mavis’s mourning mother could not stand the trauma and had died before knowing the truth and burying her daughter.
“We are a poor family and we can’t do anything to give her a decent send-off,” she said.
Nancy said they are still troubled by not knowing how Mavis died, but they are happy they got the body. They will bury her on Saturday.
