Ntsebeng Motsoeli
MASERU — Chief Molefi Masupha from Sefikeng is a distraught man.
Last Saturday, his 53-year-old wife ‘Maleloko was found dead at a nearby river hours after she left her house at night.
Masupha said they were watching television together with some children from the neighbourhood when ‘Maleloko left the house at around 7pm.
“She walked out of the TV room and I just thought she was doing some house chores.
“I later went out to inspect around the house and check on our livestock and when I came back she was still not in. The children said she had not come back,” Masupha said.
“I thought that she might have paid a visit to a relative’s house where there had been a funeral. She had been looking after the relative days before she died.”
When his wife did not return home Masupha decided to retire to bed.
“But I started to worry when the girls told me she had not come back. Just as I was sending one of our children to go and inquire at the relative’s house, we heard a shout out; an alarm that a person had been found dead.”
“I did not believe it when our son told me it was his mother. I proceeded to the scene to witness with my own eyes. There I saw a scene that will not go out of my eyes.
“My wife was lying dead by the river. She was naked, not even a string on her waist. I called the police,” an emotional Masupha said.
He said his wife’s clothes were neatly folded some few metres from the spot she had died.
“The clothes were neatly folded like she was preparing to bathe. When the police arrived we turned her body around to see if there were any injuries and there were none. She just had minor scratches on the elbows. There was no sign of a struggle to suspect that she had been killed and placed there.”
Her body was then taken to a local mortuary.
‘Maleloko’s cousin later told Masupha that she had passed by her house the night that she died.
Together they visited another relative but the cousin had left before ‘Maleloko.
“She (the cousin) said when my wife got to her house she was still taking a bath. They both are devotees of the St John Church and so according to their belief they have to bathe after visiting a bereaved family. They call it cleansing.”
“She told me that my wife had said that she wished to take a thorough cleansing at the river,” he said.
Masupha said post-mortem results had showed that his wife had died because of some blood clots in her head.
“There were some blood clots which were found in her head. She could have fallen and hurt her head and therefore struggled to stand up. It was one of the coldest nights. She died a painful death,” he said.
Police spokesperson Senior Inspector Masupha Masupha confirmed the incident.
“The Sefikeng police got a report that the wife of a chief was found dead near a river,” Masupha said.
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