A frustrated woman committed suicide by setting herself alight last week. Speculation is now rife that she chose death by burning rather than being humiliated and abused by a family member again …

It is said that Ms Khubani Shivambu (48) of Mabayeni Village outside Malamulele had doused herself with paraffin before setting herself alight. Her smoldering body was found by her youngest daughter, Queen, last Wednesday.

Although the circumstances leading to her death are still vague, information at Mirror’s disposal is that, on the day of the incident, she sent the 12-year-old Queen to a local shop to buy paraffin, which she claimed was to be used to test some lamps. “She gave me a R100 note and when I came back, she asked me to go to family in the village to fetch some bananas,” said Queen.

Queen said she went there and came back faster than she expected after finding no one. When she arrived back home, she found her mother changing clothes. When asked as to why she was changing clothes, she gave no reason and sent her to another family to get some fruit, but the family had no prior arrangement with her for fruit and she came back empty-handed again.

“When I came back, I found my mother was gone and when I looked for the container with paraffin, it was missing. I started getting suspicious and quickly approached local headman Pieter Macebele for assistance. We went to the neighbouring veld and one neighbour confirmed having seen my mother go into the veld while carrying something,” she said.

Queen said their suspicions were confirmed when they approached the veld and saw a big cloud of smoke coming from the bush. The headman suggested that, as a member of the Apostolic Church, she might be burning something as part of church rituals.

“The girl just cried that her mother was dead and she fainted,” said Macebele.

He added that the woman’s  body had completely burnt out and only part of her legs could be recognized.

Khubani Moyana, the dead woman’s sister, blamed the law enforcement agencies for her mother’s death. She said she was disappointed with the law as many cases of abuse against the deceased were reported, but they were treated lightly. “My sister could still be alive had they taken the matter seriously. She did not know where to run to after all the abuse and she decided to take her life to end her misery,” she said.

Malamulele police spokesperson Insp Alson Mapindani said he was not aware of the case as he had been working outside the police station for some days. He promised to investigate.

Ms Shivambu was buried on Saturday at the local cemetery.