Elmon Tshikhudo
Teen mother Laura Fholisani Sinthumule had an 18-month-old baby and she refused to have another one – but her refusal enraged her boyfriend.
Not only has Laura paid with her life, her baby has also been brutally injured – stabbed and left near the mother’s dead body.
18-year-old Laura, a Grade 11 learner at Tshipakoni Secondary School in Tshino, near Makhado in Limpopo, couldn’t face the responsibility of raising another child.
She didn’t have an ID, her baby didn’t have a birth certificate and she couldn’t get a Sassa grant. Her 26-year-old boyfriend, Maanda Maeba, was unemployed and they struggled to put food on the table.
But Maanda wanted a baby.
Laura was found dead in their rented room on Friday and her severely injured baby lay unconscious in a pool of blood.
The baby remains in hospital and is in a stable condition.
The gruesome murder has shocked the people of the peaceful village of Tshino.
The girl’s uncle, Petros Maselesele, said she had lived in Madombidzha but relocated to Tshino last year.
“She was pregnant when she arrived here and she stayed with her cousin for a while. She then moved in with her new boyfriend,” Maselesele said.
“The child was born in February last year and that was when the relationship turned violent.”
He said the neighbours knew they were fighting.
“The boyfriend has insisted on having a baby but she felt given the circumstances a new baby was out of the question,” he said.
“She was killed in the most gruesome way. I feel that she was let down by her family as she was by herself most of the time.”
Maanda handed himself over to police and he appeared at the Vuwani Magistrate’s Court charged with murder on Tuesday.
His case was postponed to 31 August 2021.
He was remanded in custody with no bail.
