A young Manenberg mother has been viciously stabbed to death by her boyfriend in front of her three-year-old daughter.
The lifeless body of Phumeza Madze was found wedged between two shacks in Jenny Street, Tambo Village, as she tried to escape her knife-wielding berk on Monday night.
According to her best friend, who asked not to be named, Phumeza is originally from the Eastern Cape and had been dating her Malawian boyfriend for 10 years.
“They lived here in this shack together and he kept her like a slave,” says the friend.
“He beat her everyday and didn’t allow her to have friends and she had no family here.”
The 31-year-old woman says on arrival in Cape Town 10 years ago, the boyfriend had no place to stay and Phumeza took him in.
She says the relationship soured when Phumeza discovered that he had a wife.
“He worked at a tikka chicken stand and things got bad when she found out that his wife was from Malawi and that he was keeping her in secret at a house in Gugulethu.
“He started beating her so much and she was very scared of him.
“On Monday, I was asleep when the neighbours came to call me.
“They had an argument and he started beating her and took out a knife and stabbed her so many times in the back.
“Her daughter was in the shack and saw everything.”
Residents say Phumeza escaped but was cornered between two shacks where he trapped and killed her.
“You can still see all the blood. All of us are so traumatised.
“She was such a lovely person and we hope the police will catch him because he just ran away and never came back,” adds the friend.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk says: “Manenberg Police are investigating a murder case after a stabbing incident on at about 11.48pm at a premises in Jenny Street, Tambo Village, Manenberg, where a 30-year-old woman was stabbed and fatally wounded by her known boyfriend.
“According to reports, an argument started between them and he (foreign national) stabbed her in the back with a knife and fled the scene and is yet to be arrested.”