Ritual murder survivor moves on: Nyelisani finds love

A young woman, who survived the sharp blades of ritual murderers in 2005, has picked up the pieces and is moving on with her life.

Nyelisani Sidimela (33) of Makonde, one of the country’s well-known ritual murder survivors, lost her boyfriend, Maanda Sendedza, in the same incident. She was left for dead, maimed, with her lips removed.

Now she has found love, and with a loving husband to support her and a bouncing baby to take care of, she is ready to face the world. At present she has put her life of constant struggle behind her and is building a five-roomed house out of her trust fund.

When Limpopo Mirror recently paid her a visit, she greeted us with a huge smile on her face.  “Yes, it is true that I have finally found love in Steven Mawela and that I have a baby, Mulweli. Ever since the nasty incident happened to me, I have been very lonely. Like every human being, I had to come to terms with the fact that I had lost my love when my boyfriend was mercilessly butchered by the cold and senseless murderers. I came to realize that he would not be coming back and I had to move on with my life,” she said.

She said as a first step she had to rediscover herself and have confidence in herself. “I used to put a scarf around my mouth in order to hide the scars on my lips and to avoid the stares of people. As time went on, I decided to take it off because I realized that the scars were there for life. I had to adapt and learn to live with them and I am very free with myself since then,” she said.

She said she had met her husband, Steven Mawela from Tshilamba, last year when he used to come to her place to drink beer. “Ours was a match made in heaven. He set his eyes on me, we exchanged numbers and had constant conversations. The one thing followed another and the rest is history. We have a beautiful baby, Mulweli, who is seven months old,” she said giggling.

Breastfeeding her new bundle of joy, Sidimela said Mawela was the best thing to have come into her life. “This is the perfect man. Life without him was empty, and since he came into my life, my life has changed for the better. He is a loving man who knows how to handle a woman and I we have plans to have a bigger family; maybe three children,” she said.

Asked why she named the baby Mulweli, Sidimela was quick to say that she had almost been killed, but God had fought for her and protected her from certain death. “Mulweli means protector and the name is in remembrance of what happened to me. I was saved by God and He will remain my Protector,” said Sidimela.

Mawela, who survives on piece jobs, said he did not look at the outwards appearance of a person but at the inner person when it came to love. “Beauty might deceive you. A person could be very beautiful physically but very evil deep down in her heart,” he added. According to him, his wife is “the perfect woman, full of love, and I hope we will be together forever. We are planning to have a bigger family and be happy forever,” he said.

The new family is living in extreme squalor. The one-roomed house is dilapidated and when it rains it is full of water. They are looking forward to the day that their new house will be finished, but at present, it is progressing very slowly.

Date:20 March 2014

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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