“Mama, I’m sorry for not listening when you warned me about this boy. Please look after my daughter.” These were the final words Nompumelelo Gamede spoke to her mother, Shirley Mlanjeni, before slipping into a coma in the ICU after she was allegedly set alight by her boyfriend Mpumelelo Hill in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, last week.
According to Mpumalanga police, Nompumelelo, 21, and another woman, who is the suspect’s sister, were doused with petrol and set on fire.
The suspect’s sister had reportedly tried to intervene and became a target herself.
A day before Nompumelelo’s passing, doctors informed the family that her condition had deteriorated and that her kidneys had failed. They also said she was no longer responding to medication.
“When she arrived at the hospital, she told me she couldn’t feel her body anymore,” said Mlanjeni.
“She said, ‘Mama, I’m sorry for not listening when you warned me about this boy. Please look after my daughter.’ I told her, ‘You can’t do this to me,’ and those were her last words before she was taken into ICU.
On Sunday, exactly 10 days after the incident, the family received the devastating call that Nompumelelo had succumbed to her injuries.
During a visit on Saturday, doctors had told the family that more than 60% of Nompumelelo’s body had been severely burned. That same day, they also learned that the second victim had died from her injuries.
“We thought she was making progress,” Mlanjeni recalled. “But the doctor told us her kidneys were shutting down. After hearing that the other girl had passed, we were terrified. Now our family is shattered.
Nompumelelo had been in a relationship with the suspect for nearly three years. They shared a daughter, who was under the care of the suspect’s parents.
According to the family, the suspect and his sister moved in next door a few years ago after their grandmother passed away. That’s when he met Nompumelelo.
On the morning of the fire, Nompumelelo’s aunt and other community members saw smoke rising from the house. They rushed over and allegedly found Hill sitting calmly in the dining room, claiming he didn’t know where the keys for the burglar door were.
“I wasn’t paying much attention to their relationship until last year when I found out he was abusing her. Her aunt would often hear things being broken in the house during their fights,” said another family member.
“Just a week before the fire, they had another big argument. He was so angry he smashed the kitchen windows with his bare fists. Then, as always, he’d try to make amends after the fight, replacing whatever he broke and acting remorseful.
“He used to ask his mother to take him to a traditional healer to ‘find out what was wrong with him,’ but once he got money, he never followed through. It became a cycle of violence and empty promises.”
Mlanjeni said the fire broke out around 6.30am and the community tried to put it out but there was no water and even their efforts of dousing it with soil failed.
“When I arrived, I peered through the burglar gate. My daughter’s boyfriend was sitting calmly on the sofa while the fire raged. His sister and Nompumelelo were screaming for help from the bedroom. He just sat there, drinking alcohol. When people begged him to unlock the gate, he claimed he didn’t have the keys,” Mlanjeni recalled.
Her aunt and local residents managed to break down the burglar bars with a spade, but the bedroom door was also locked.
“We broke that down too and dragged the girls out. They were immediately rushed to the clinic.”
Hill’s sister, who was briefly able to speak, confirmed that her brother had poured petrol inside the bedroom and locked them in.
Hill is expected to appear for the second time at Emalahleni magistrate’s court for his bail application on Thursday