The mother of a young Port Elizabeth woman – murdered before her body was taken to a field and set alight – said she was struggling to provide her other children with adequate love as all she wanted was to be left alone.
Speaking outside the Motherwell Magistrate’s Court on Thursday – where her daughter’s former boyfriend appeared on murder charges – Azintle Feni’s mother said she wanted justice to be served and for the case to be finalised.
But it will be a long time before that happens. The case was postponed on Thursday for a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether the trial should be held in the high court.
The 25-year-old woman’s charred remains were found in the bushes near Chalumna Street, which borders the Swarkops River in Motherwell, on June 29.
She had last been seen on June 16 and her family had reported her missing.
On Thursday, Siviwe Khusani, 26, appeared in the Motherwell Magistrate’s Court on charges of murder.
He was arrested on June 29.
Azintle’s mother, Thembakazi Jack, 40, said the brutal murder had left her devastated and numb.
“My daughter’s death has destroyed me,” Jack said.
“I can’t even love my children anymore, every day I cry myself to sleep.”
Jack said she was undergoing therapy and taking medication for depression.
Even so, it was still difficult for her to accept her daughter’s death, she said.
“It would be better if he stabbed her ... [but] the brutality ... [he allegedly] left my daughter in ashes.
“I don’t think I will ever find it in my heart to forgive him,” Jack said.
She said her children could see how broken she was, begging her every day to stop crying.
Azintle’s grandmother, Paulina Feni, 82, said it would take a miracle for her family to recover from the murder of her granddaughter.
“I loved her so much. It pains me to see my daughter in tears every day and there is nothing I can do.
“I’m scared that my daughter will one day commit suicide,” she said.
Feni said that if the case could be speeded up her family might find closure.
“We know nothing can bring our daughter back, but a lengthy sentence for him would bring closure to the family,” Feni said.
Family friend and neighbour Ziyanda Gcakasi, 24, who went to court to support the Feni family, said Khusani had been “troublesome” since he and Azintle had broken up.
“But we never thought that he might [allegedly] brutally kill her,” Gcakasi said.
She said all she wanted was to see justice for her friend.
“All we want is justice to prevail,” she said.
Khusani will appear in the Motherwell Magistrate’s Court again on October 5.
The Director of Public Prosecutions will then make a decision on whether or not the case should be transferred to the Port Elizabeth High Court.