Family of Limpopo pitbull victim want explanation from dogs' owner

The family of the Limpopo woman who was attacked and killed by two pit bull dogs say they are struggling to come to terms with her death.

Melitta Sekole, 43, was walking from a residential area in the Mara policing precinct to Vivo outside Bochum (Senwabarwana) on December 23 when she was attacked by the dogs, which ripped her clothes and bit her. She died of her injuries four days later.

Speaking to TimesLIVE, her relative, Pleasure Makhura, said they had many questions they had hoped the dogs' owner would answer.

“The dogs attacked her far from the home of the dogs. I think she was almost 900 metres away from that home, so how did they manage to leave the home and follow her? Didn’t the owner see the dogs are not in the yard? We also wonder if the gate was left open and [they] perhaps followed her?” Makhura said on Tuesday.

“What pains us, even more, is that the owner of the dogs has not come to explain to the family what happened.”

Makhura said she is battling to remove from her mind what she saw when she arrived at the scene.

She was called by people who worked at the filling station close to where the attack happened.

“She was still conscious but looked very weak. The only thing she told me was that I should call her brother. There was a lot of blood on the ground. I have never seen so much in my life. It looked like she was stabbed by someone. What those dogs did to her was horrible.”

Sekole was taken to hospital and later transferred to the provincial hospital in Polokwane. 

“I saw her on the day she was transferred and she told me she was no longer in pain because they had given her injections. She looked promising. We never thought she would not make it. We were starting to prepare how we would help her when she was discharged because she had already told me she didn't think she would be able to go back to work soon,” Makhura said. 

“We began to feel concerned when the hospital called on Christmas Day and told us she had lost a lot of blood. We told them to do anything necessary to help her.”

According to Makhura, Sekole's right hand was amputated.

“She called me crying that they have cut her hand. We told her she must stay positive because the doctors know what they are doing. I went to see her on the 26th. She was able to converse. I asked her what happened to the hand. She said it got broken as she was trying to fight the dogs. She said the dogs had bitten all the skin on the hand and the bones were visible.”

She described Sekole as a quiet and kind person. .” She worked as a cook at the Spar.

According to police spokesperson Col Malesela Ledwaba, the dogs' owner Nchabeleng Charles Masebe, 62, was arrested and a case of culpable homicide was opened. He appeared in the Senwabarwana magistrate's court and was remanded until Thursday.

Makhura said Sekole's funeral will be on Saturday in Ga-Makgatho village outside Bochum. She is survived by two sons, aged 19 and 7, and a 17-year-old daughter. 

TimesLIVE