“She was my peace and now she’s gone”

The mother of a murdered 10-year old girl sits in her lounge emotionless, forcing herself to eat.
Betty Sithole (34) is the mother of Kamogelo Sithole. The child’s body was found in a shack on 7 November. Her murder and the subsequent arrest of a suspect had the community up in arms. Community members gathered in front of the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court to oppose bail for Joseph Phage (38), who was arrested in connection with the little girl’s murder.

According to Betty, things went sour on Thursday, 4 November when she went to court. Joseph Phage was to be charged with attempted murder after stabbing her for refusing to give him money.
“We found him waiting for us at court, begging me to drop the charges. He had got so used to me always doing the things he wanted that it came as a shock to him when I wasn’t willing to hear any more excuses,” Betty explained.

According to her, Joseph went outside “to smoke” but went to Kamogelo’s school and kidnapped her instead.
According to Betty, Joseph was allowed to leave with Kamogelo because he claimed to be her uncle. “He kept sending me and my sister messages, saying he had Kamogelo and we should sit down and talk things through,” Betty recalled.

“We looked for her tirelessly. Although Joseph had been abusive at times, I would never have imagined that this [Kamogelo being murdered] would be our situation. I thought he’d kill me, not my baby girl,” she said.
Betty says she is distraught by what has happened and struggles to come to terms with the fact that someone she once got along with, would do something so inhumane.

“I still can’t believe it. I keep looking at the school children passing by and wishing that my baby girl would walk in at any moment,” she said.
Betty remembers her daughter as a darling. “She was extremely quiet; she didn’t have many friends and focused on her studies,” she said.
“She was my peace and now she’s gone. We miss her terribly. Some- times, when we share memories of her, we can’t help crying because we feel her absence so deeply,” Betty said. “I don’t have any words for Joseph, I just want to look at him and let him see the great pain he has caused me,” Betty lamented.

Since the murder, Betty has had trouble eating and sleeping and cannot describe the anger she has towards the school.
“How can they release Kamogelo without my consent? I’m extremely upset,” she said.

The school has visited the family home a few times to convey their messages of condolences. However, to date, the teacher responsible for allowing Kamogelo to go is yet to apologise.
“I’m not sure if she was at the funeral on Saturday (13 November) but she hasn’t had the decency to look me in the eye and admit that what she did was wrong,” Betty said, choking back the tears. “How would she feel if the same thing happened to her child?” she said angrily.

According to her, everything is a blur at the moment. She knows it will take time and faith before she’ll be able to live with what has happened.
The Herald asked the school for comment but had not received a response by the time of going to print.