A 35-year-old man was arrested after allegedly stabbing his lover in the chest, police said.
The incident, which shocked most neighbours of the couple at the General Pretorius block of flats in the city centre, occurred on Monday, just a day after Mother’s Day on 11 May.
Saintjay Manyasha, an eyewitness, said the mother of a two-year-old child and a three-months-old infant tried to run away from her allegedly violent partner before she was stabbed.
“I saw the woman trying to protect herself by beating her partner with a broom when he was attacking her outside the flat. The man then went inside the flat and came out with a knife. The woman ran up the stairs to other floors but the armed man followed her,” Manyasha said.
Manyasha said he saw the man coming back to his flat and a minute later saw the woman coming down the steps bleeding profusely from the chest.
“The woman did not go back into the flat. She went down the steps to find help,” Manyasha said. He added that the man, who was still armed with a knife, went up and down the steps looking for the woman. “The man was unaware that the woman had gone down the steps,” Manyasha said.
Manyasha called ward 80’s Councillor Cameron Ngwenya, who assisted by calling the emergency services.
Sergeant Ann Poortman, Central police spokesperson, said they found the woman face down on the street. The women was able to tell the police the name of the suspect and the flat he was in. “After that she couldn’t speak anymore and was in pain,” Poortman said.
Police caught the suspect inside the flat.
They opened a case of attempted murder and the suspect will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court soon.
