Gugulethu mother dies after being set alight in ‘domestic dispute’

A GUGULETHU mother who worked for the Department of Community Safety, checking if police stations are sensitive to gender-based violence (GBV) victims, became a GBV victim herself when she was set alight, allegedly by her boyfriend, and died.

Jacquelene Mpontsana, 40, was set alight in a domestic violence dispute. She was initially rushed to hospital, and family, friends and colleagues had hoped that she would recover from her severe injuries. Unfortunately, she died on Monday afternoon.

Her distraught uncle, Mncedisi Mpontsana, said the family were having difficulty coming to terms with the horrific manner in which she had died.

Mncedisi said that Mpontsana, who was a breadwinner in the family, had a 13-year-old child. He said they were informed by the boyfriend’s family early on Monday.

“We did not expect something like this to happen to her. She fought so hard against gender-based violence, for her to die this way. You burn something that is no longer valuable to you, to us she was valuable. The guy could have let her go if she had no value to him, not just set her alight like she was an item,” said Mncedisi.

The boyfriend’s aunt, who witnessed the incident, said Mpontsana used to visit them, and would sometimes sleep at their place. She said her nephew had been violent, and had also been violent towards his family.

She said her nephew arrived at home, and angrily asked for Mpontsana to come to him.

“We tried to stop him, until he left the house through a back door. He came back and threw petrol at her and in the house,” she said.

Police spokesperson André TrautMpontsana’s death was under investigation. The suspect had fled and had yet to be arrested, he said.

Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz said: “What makes her passing especially tragic is that her work entailed inspecting SAPS stations for their compliance to assist victims of domestic and gender-based violence. It is incredibly upsetting. But we have to go on. We cannot surrender in the face of this scourge. We have to keep fighting, for Mpontsana, and for every other victim like her.”

He said Mpontsana was first appointed in the Department of Community Safety in 2005, and had then performed a number of different roles.

She worked in a section that dealt with complaints against the police, fulfilling the functions of secretary for both the Domestic Violence Compliance Forum and the Ipid Consultative Forum.

Her manager, Werner Bezuidenhout, said: “It is for the directorate and me an absolute tragedy that Jacquelene was allegedly killed by her partner in an act of extreme domestic violence. She was an invaluable member of our team, and she will be sorely missed.”

The head of department, Yashina Pillay, said: “As we work through coming to terms with this immense loss, we are comforted by the many happy memories that we have of her.”Anyone with information can call Crime Stop anonymously at 08600 10111 or via the MySAPSApp.