A BIZARRE scene greeted a grieving widow and her children when they woke up yesterday morning.

A coffin in which Donicky Mokoena's husband Caiphus was to be buried in last weekend was at the gate of their home in Mshandza village, near Hazyview, Mpumalanga.

Mokoena alleges that her mother-in-law and husband's brothers hijacked a hearse and took the coffin on Saturday while it was on its way to the cemetery. Her son Senzo, 21, was allegedly assaulted during the incident.

"I do not know why they are doing all this. They are hurting me and my children. Whatever I have done to my mother-in-law, I plead for forgiveness.

"Now they have placed the coffin I bought for my husband at the gate. What am I supposed to do with it?" asked a weeping Mokoena.

Her husband died in a car accident on July 8.

Mokoena's lawyer, Vusi Mboweni, said his client had won the case to bury her husband in the traditional and magistrate's courts when her mother-in-law and other members of his family contested who had the right to bury him.

"The high court matter should have been finalised last Friday but was postponed to August 10. The family of the deceased is making allegations that my client and her husband divorced in 2010. We do not have the divorce decree."

Mokoena's son Senzo, 21, said the family had made arrangements for the burial because their father had been in the mortuary for a long time.

Caiphus Mokoena's cousin Caners Nyundu said: "We buried my cousin on Saturday because he divorced his wife in 2010.

"We do not have a problem with the children. The only person we have a problem with is their mother. She is disrespectful," he said.

The National Prosecuting Authority said this was a civil matter and they only commented on criminal cases they dealt with.

Mboweni said he would be making an urgent application to the Pretoria High Court to have the body exhumed.