House number 8 on Matobege Street in Kwa-Thema's Mashinini section in Springs, on the East Rand, had become popular with local police for cases of domestic violence.

Vuyisile Masina, 59, would report her husband whenever he attacked her but would not lay charges against him.

This had been going on for years until on July 18 when Masina was rescued by her daughter from her axe-wielding husband, Joseph Nxumalo, in their home.

Speaking to Sowetan for the first time since her attack, Masina said she was out of hospital and recovering at home. "I'm not well, I don't wanna lie but I'm picking up," she said. "I'm happy that I finally put him behind bars."

Police opened a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Masina's daughter Malibongwe Vilakazi, 23, told Sowetan how she wrestled with her stepfather, snatched the axe from him and saved her mother's life.

Masina has been in an abusive marriage for over 16 years.

"I heard my mother scream in the bathroom corridor around 5am on Thursday July 18. I jumped out of bed and found my stepdad butchering her with an axe. She was bleeding profusely, and the floor was turning into a pool of blood," said Vilakazi.

She said although she was scared, she summoned up the courage and jumped at the man, reached for the axe and sat on top of him.

Masina then escaped and ran into her bedroom.

"If I was not there, my mother would have died because this man was not just assaulting her, he was killing her."

Vilakazi said her mother suffered severe injuries and received nine stitches on the head, 16 on her arm and 14 on her back.

"I'm really terrified because she has suffered so much pain.

"I immediately called the paramedics with the help of neighbours, and the police were also called.

"I almost lost my mom and I don't wish for anyone to go through this. Domestic violence is painful and I'm opening up because this man once stabbed me in the head while he was fighting my mom, and I was hospitalised.

"I was left with a knife in my head and it had to be removed in hospital because I was trying to stop the man from stabbing her," she said.

Kwa-Thema police spokesperson Const Media Khoza said in the past three years, there had been repeated reported call-outs for police intervention at the same address but no case had been opened by the woman in the past.

Khoza said the woman had been advised to open a case by other officers attending the area but never did.

"We have many other cases that are reported and opened by women against their partners but they later come and withdraw them," said Khoza.