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Shooting of couple still a shock

PATRICIA Nyembe left home for work in a jolly mood on Saturday morning, promising to see her family later.

PATRICIA Nyembe left home for work in a jolly mood on Saturday morning, promising to see her family later.

But that did not happen. Instead they received a call that she had been shot dead.

Nyembe, 32, who was eight months pregnant, was allegedly killed by her fiancé Isaac Palaswa, 34, who then turned the gun on himself.

This took place at a Pick n Pay store in Sunninghill, Johannesburg, where the couple worked.

Nyembe's aunt, Mavis Pieterson, was the one who answered the phone. She could not believe that her niece had been shot and killed by the man she was supposed to marry later this year.

Yesterday she was too distraught and traumatised to speak to Sowetan.

Charles Pieterson, Nyembe's cousin, said: "We are still shocked about what happened. Death is never an easy thing to deal with.

"Patricia was a lovely person. She was always bubbly but straight-talker. It is difficult to accept that she is gone.

"I do not know what is worse, knowing that we will never see her again or that the man who loved her took her life."

It is alleged that Nyembe and Palaswa had quarreled in a storeroom before the shooting and that it was not the first time they quarreled.

"My cousin and her fiancé fought like any other couple," Pieterson said. "I think their last quarrel three weeks ago, was what pushed Isaac to take both their lives,"

He said after that quarrel Palaswa moved out of the couple's home in Alexandra.

Police have opened an inquest docket. - Zinhle Mapumulo

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