Cape Town - N2 Gateway residents in Delft have pleaded with the police to arrest a “jealous and abusive” man accused of killing his girlfriend, failing which they said they would deal with him.
The community is accusing the man, currently roaming the streets, of allegedly assaulting and suffocating 24-year-old mother of two Vuyiswa Pailman on the night of February 12.
She later died in the early hours of the following morning at Tygerberg Hospital.
An amount of R5 500 which the friends of Vuyiswa Pailman collected ensured that she was finally buried on Saturday, three weeks after her death.
Pailman was found half-naked on the floor of her house with a scar and blood at the back of her head while the man accused of killing her was allegedly standing in the same room with the sleeping baby in his arms.
Sister Nombulelelo Pailman said the family was in the dark about how Vuyiswa died and that her friends were afraid to speak up. She described Vuyiswa’s relationship with the man as abusive and toxic.
Pailman said while the family were waiting for the post-mortem results, which would be released after three months, the cause of death on the death certificate confirmed that she died from “unnatural causes”.
Pailman said the family wanted the man to feel what her sister felt and pay for what he did to her.
One of her friends, Melony Daniels, said the community was still shocked at what happened to Vuyiswa. Daniels said Pailman had left behind two young children, a 4-year-old daughter, and a year-old son.
Daniels said that on many occasions the man would beat, drag and strip her naked in public. She said Pailman couldn’t dress up like a young girl and go out with her friends because her boyfriend was jealous.
“While she was still working she told me that she didn't want to work anymore, accusing her boyfriend of doing horrible things to her after work by inserting his fingers into her private parts to check if she didn’t sleep with other men.
“How can someone this cruel and disrespectful still walk around people, and go on with his life as if nothing happened?” she said.
The police were approached to advise on their investigation but could not respond by publication time.