By Keiso Mohloboli
BEREA — A 17-year-old girl of Lekokoaneng Ha-Mokhenene has narrated how she witnessed the brutal murder of her father by her mother’s secret lover on Friday, December 20, 2013.
The girl cannot be named for her security, however she narrated the harrowing tale of how she watched helplessly as her father was being axed to death.
She said her mother has threatened to kill her if she alerted other people about the murder.
After the gruesome incident, she says, her mother’s lover picked her battered father’s corpse, crammed it into a plastic bag and buried it in a pit behind the house.
Prior to the murder, which seems to have been premeditated, the lovers had hired someone, whom they paid M20 to dig a pit, purportedly to build a latrine just behind the yard.
The body was discovered and exhumed on January 2, the same day the suspects were apprehended.
“December 20, 2013 was the worst day of my life. It is not easy to witness your father being killed in cold blood,” the girl said.
The girl was overwhelmed with emotion.
“I had just arrived home from work when I saw it happen. My father was hacked to death with an axe, his corpse put in a plastic bag and buried,” she said.
“I feel weak and do not want to talk a lot about the incident.”
She said her mother’s lover had told her that she would be the next to die if she told people about what she saw.
The girl is employed as a domestic worker and she says she had continued going to work after the incident despite that she was deeply hurting
She subsequently gave a statement to Teyateyaneng police on January 4, two days after the arrest of her mother and her lover.
The girl said she got the shock of her life when she returned home from the police station only to be kicked out by her fuming aunts who said they did not want anything associated with her mother in their brother’s house.
“They expelled me from my home saying the family does not want anybody who has ‘anything to do with your mother to stay here’,” the girl said.
The teenager said she had no choice but to pack her bags and move out.
“I came to Maseru at my uncle’s place and luckily enough found another job. I am a domestic worker at one home in Maseru. I did not tell them (her new employers) about my situation because I just want to forget about the whole experience,” she said.
She said although she is trying to forget about her father’s death, she is in a “confused state and rapidly losing weight”.
A neighbour, who sought anonymity to protect the teenager’s identity, said the incident had clearly traumatised the girl.
According to the neighbour, the girl disappeared and they never saw her since Saturday, January 4, 2014.
Police spokesperson, Lebona Mohloboli, last night said the suspects were still in police custody Teyateyaneng pending the completion of investigations.
