In a harrowing tale of survival, Phumzile Shongwe (39) faced a living nightmare when her ex-partner allegedly assaulted her and she had to undergo operations on her hands and arms.

A seemingly innocuous conversation turned deadly, exposing the dark underbelly of toxic relationships and alleged systemic failure by the Kriel SAPS.

On Wednesday, September 25, she came home from work at around 18:30.

When she arrived at her home in Ga-Nala, her ex wanted to talk to her, begging and pleading that he could not live without her.

“I told him that we could not be together because of his behaviour, and he told me that he had been bewitched and would get it sorted out and that he loves me. I asked his brother to please take him away as he was disturbing my peace,” she said.

Later in the evening, it got quiet, and she was hoping he had finally left.

This was when her true nightmare began

After finishing her supper, she needed to use the bathroom, which is located outside. She opened her security gate and this was when her ex allegedly ambushed her out of the darkness.

“His face had changed. He looked like an animal and was screaming at me. He closed and locked the security gate, trapping us inside my home. That was when he told me he was going to kill me and then himself,” Shongwe recalls through tears.

He allegedly grabbed an axe that she had in her home and swung it at her head, but she managed to find the strength to grab it from him and with quick thinking threw it out of one of the windows.

He then allegedly pulled out a knife and forced her onto her bed, got on top of her and tried stabbing her.

She started screaming for help, and her ex’s brother came running and was standing at the window, begging his brother to please stop and not to harm her, but he couldn’t get into the house to assist her.

She grabbed the knife’s blade with both hands and held on. Her fingers and hands were mutilated during the struggle.

“My hands and arms were cut to pieces. Somehow he dropped the knife but then started strangling me, screaming at me to die. There was so much blood and I could feel myself losing strength and that I was dying,” she recalls through tears.

It was just before blacking out that her ex’s brother managed to break into the house and pull him off her.

The police were called to assist

She called the police, who allegedly advised her to get to the hospital, and when she was able to, to come and collect a J88 form.

A friend of hers tried talking to the police and saying that the attacker was still on the premises. Allegedly, the policewoman who was attending to the call was incredibly rude and just kept telling them not to tell her how to do her job.

After the suspect left the scene, Shongwe was taken to hospital bleeding profusely, and on the way they passed a police van.

“The police told us to first go past the police station to get a J88 form before taking me to hospital. They didn’t ask for any other details like who attacked me, or where I live.’’

Ex allegedly broke into her house and set it alight

While she was being attended to at Impungwe Hospital, she got a call that her ex had allegedly broken into her home, poured fuel over her property and himself, and had set himself and her home alight.

He was badly burned but still alive.

In the days after the attack, Shongwe alleged that the police were not very helpful in arresting her ex or assisting her with this matter.

She feels as if she was let down by the SAPS, “I carried the knife he used on me in a plastic container for days waiting for them to come and take my statement.”

Shongwe was admitted to Witbank General Hospital on Friday, October 18, for surgery on her hands and arms, as tendons and nerves had been severed in the brutal assault.

She has more to say about her ordeal with SAPS, and WITBANK NEWS will be sure to catch up with her on this developing story once she is well enough to explain what has happened with the investigation from her perspective.

Kriel SAPS was contacted for comment, but no response had been received at the time of going to print.

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