Palesa’s remains handed to family
After months of heartbreak and despair, Palesa Madiba’s remains were finally formally handed over to her family.
|||Johannesburg - She went missing after a weekend visit to a friend - sending her family and the police on a frantic search that took more than two years.
On Sunday, after months of heartbreak and despair, Palesa Madiba’s remains were finally formally handed over to her family.
Madiba, a University of Johannesburg student, went missing after spending the weekend at her friend Tshidi Mkhwanazi’s house in Phiri in 2013. She was 19 at the time.
Last year, police recovered bones believed to have been hers in a shallow grave in Mkhwanazi’s backyard after receiving a tip-off.
DNA tests were conducted on the bones and it was confirmed the remains were hers.
On Sunday, Gauteng Premier David Makhura and Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane handed over the teenager’s remains at a solemn ceremony at the Diepkloof mortuary in Soweto.
Madiba’s mother, Khosi Galesitwe, and her aunt, Tebogo Tsoledi, cried throughout the service. Palesa’s grandmother, Sarah Khuzwayo, wept openly and called out her granddaughter’s name throughout the ceremony. “Palesa! Palesa! Palesa!” she wailed.
Male members of the family carried the casket holding her remains from the government mortuary vehicle to one belonging to a funeral parlour that will assist in burying her.
When handing over Madiba’s remains to her family on Sunday, Makhura said the police were to ensure the people responsible for her death were arrested.
“As a family, you have gone through a lot of pain since Palesa disappeared. Today is more painful because you have always hoped that maybe she will pitch one day and arrive at home and get news from us that she is alive,” the premier said.
“We are very sorry that today we bring you the remains of your dear Palesa. Palesa lived a life full of promise. A young person who was studying to improve her own life and develop herself.
“We are going to make sure the perpetrators of Palesa’s death have nowhere to hide in our country. We are not going to relent until the perpetrators are arrested.”
Makhura said the investigation team didn’t want him to reveal details regarding the case. “They want to do the investigation without sending any signal to anyone involved. The details that cannot be revealed include the cause of death,” he said.
Asked why it had taken so long to arrest those involved after her remains were discovered, Nkosi-Malobane said: “Soon we will be arresting the perpetrators. It’s not only one person who is suspected, there are a number of people. Very soon we will definitely arrest those people and we will make sure they go to trial so that the truth can be revealed.”
The Madiba family spokesman, Thabiso Tsoledi, said he believed the family would find ultimate closure. “The end will only be when the perpetrators are brought to book and every man in this country stands up for their loved ones - for their daughters and their wives - and don’t let such things happen,” he said.
He thanked the public for their messages of encouragement during the family’s difficult time.
The family, he added, would hold a private funeral on Tuesday. A memorial service was held two weeks ago.
tebogo.monama@inl.co.za
The Star