Family of Mpumalanga woman axed by baby daddy over Sassa card speaks out

News24

4 days ago

She was a young mother with her whole life ahead of her, but it was tragically cut short by the father of her two children.
After not getting what he desired, he allegedly took her life in cold blood.
In a heart-wrenching turn of events, Hloniphile Ntombi Maseko (31), a mother of two from Schoemansdal - Mpumalanga fell victim to her baby daddy's rage, Simanga Kamanga (41), in a dispute over a Sassa grant card that has left her family and community mourning and demanding justice.
In an interview with DRUM, the victim's brother, Sifiso Maseko narrated the events that led to his sister's demise.
He said that the couple had long separated and were only co-parenting, with protection orders in place due to the accused's history of stalking his sister. On Saturday, May 10th, the two fought over a grant card which the victim refused to hand over, leading to the heated argument.
'I can say their relationship had issues. And in fact, there were also three if not four protection orders restricting Kamanga from coming closer to her. Two days before the incident, which was Saturday, May 10, 2025, I was told they had met and that guy was demanding the Sassa card. They have two kids, a girl and a boy and this guy was demanding the Sassa card to be in his possession as the father, but my sister refused. On the same day, she went to the local police station to report the matter.'
He further mentioned that tragically on Monday, May 12th, when his sister was returning from work, the accused ambushed her and attacked her with an axe then fled the scene.
'Then Monday morning, my sister prepared for work as per usual, late, on that Monday night when she came back there was load shedding, so it was dark and as she got off the bus around 7 pm, her baby daddy was waiting for her at the bus station where he attacked her, although there were witnesses, they couldn't put him on the scene because of the darkness but they said they heard a frantic scream and went over to look, and by the time they reached the scene, my sister was lying in a pool of her own blood already dead.'
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Sifiso says the perpetrator was later on that same night apprehended by the police at his residence, where they found him in possession of the victim's belongings, her phone, bag as well as the blood-stained axe used in the attack.
'He was then detained by the police and taken to jail. And I think this is something he long wanted to do as they were no longer dating, and he was obviously jealous as my sister was seeing somebody else,' he added.
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Sifiso told DRUM that the following week on Tuesday, 20 May, the perpetrator appeared in the Tonga Magistrates Court - Mpumalanga facing his murder charge and was allowed to apply for bail but chose to abandon it, he further mentioned his disappointment to the accused not wanting bail.
'He is the one who knows everything, he is the one who must take responsibility for his actions. Because as a family we just need closure. We want to understand why? Yes, we can't change the situation right now, but we want to know as we now must raise the kids without their parents. He's behind bars and their mother is gone forever, and these kids are still young.'
He told us that the community is very angry that the night before the funeral, Friday May 23, they set alight the perpetrator's house.
'The community is very angry with him, and they burnt his house down beyond recognition. Luckily there was no one inside as he used to live alone, so no one was injured,' he clarified.
'When we did our thorough research on his background, he appears to be originally from Malawi, we did this as we wanted to connect with his family to reach a common ground on this issue, but we couldn't get anyone from his side of the family, no one has reached out to us. We were shocked to see him in new clothing and learn that he had already appointed an attorney during his court day on Tuesday, as it raised suspicions to us that his family is around but just doesn't want to face us, because now there's the issue with the kids which are their grandchildren too and we all need to eventually let them know of what happened between their parents but on the Kamanga family side no one is coming up.'
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Sifiso says that his family will forever hold Hloniphile dearly to their hearts and will always miss her, and he shared his fondest memory of his sister.
'My fondest memory of my sister will now forever be the time we spent on Friday, May 9 before everything transpired, we both were not at work, so we crossed paths on the road as I was going somewhere and so was she, we chatted, and she sang a tune to me, at that moment I didn't get it but now I know it was her way of saying goodbye forever, and there's many more memories of her I'll cherish forever. She was a friend, mother, sister and daughter, and it's okay we've accepted that she's no more and we have to live with it,' he concluded.
'A message to men out there or abusers out there, we don't have to protect our sisters from you, just stop attacking and killing our sisters,' he concluded.