Mother’s Day will never be the same again for the 77-year-old bedridden mother of a man whose body was found in the remnants of a fire in his shack in Ext. 7 on 2 May.
For 51-year-old Patrick Kgang Motshabi, every day was Mothers Day and his family fondly remembers how he made tea for his mother, cooked for her and carried her outside into the sunshine every day.
His 18-year-old nephew, Thapelo Motshabi tells how he came upon Patrick’s partially burnt body in his shack. He was coming back from a friend’s house at about 09:00 on Monday and went straight to the main house.
“My grandmother sent me to call my uncle in his shack. When I got inside, I saw his lifeless body on top of the ashes. His upper body was slightly burned,” he said.
Thapelo immediately rushed over to Ms Rebecca Kgobane, a neighbour who belongs to the CPF (Community Policing Forum), who called their aunt, police and emergency services. The emergency services certified him dead on their arrival.
Gogo Julia is deeply saddened by what happened to her kind-hearted son and will miss the times that he used to come into the house to chat and make her a cup of tea before she went to sleep.
“My son is an epileptic and suffers from high blood pressure. He must have had a seizure and fallen into the fire,” she says. She last saw him on Sunday night, after he had made her “a nice cup of tea”.
The family is still busy with Patrick’s funeral arrangements.
WO Ishmael Mohutsiwa of Ikageng SAPS extended condolences to the family on behalf of the police. He said it is sad to lose a member of his community in this horrible way.
“We urge our community to take care of and protect our elders, children and the sick,” he urged. “Members of the community must also remember to put out the candles and take the ‘mbaola’ outside and ensure that the fire is dead before going to sleep.”