Life Must Go On

The sister of murdered student Karabo Mokoena pours out her heart about losing her beloved sibling, how she keeps going despite the heartache and keeping her sister’s legacy alive.

- Ruwaydah Harris

THE sisters were like two peas in a pod, sharing a bedroom and telling each other everything.

They complemented each other, Bontle Mokoena says – her little sister was outgoing and sociable and loved interacting with people, while she was more of a homebody.

Now the other bed in Bontle’s bedroom is empty and a gaping hole has been left in her life too.

Karabo Mokoena, her beloved younger sister, is gone forever and Bontle is still battling to come to terms with the fact she’ll never see her coming through the door of their home again.

Karabo (22) became a symbol of the scourge of gender-based violence in South Africa when she was murdered last year, allegedly by her boyfriend, Sandile Mantsoe.

Mantsoe, a forex trader, is accused of killing Karabo in his luxury Sandton apartment and stuffing her in a Pikitup bin before loading it into his car. He then allegedly drove to a stretch of veld in Lyndhurst near Joburg, placed a tyre around her neck and set her body alight.

In the immediate aftermath of the horror, Bontle (28) was too traumatised to speak and the sisters’ mom, Lollo, spoke exclusively to DRUM in an emotional interview shortly before Karabo’s funeral (We can’t say goodbye, 25 May 2017).

Now, months later, Bontle is finally ready to talk and opens up about missing her baby sister and starting a foundation in Karabo’s name with her mom and some of her sister’s best friends.

Some good has to come out of all this, she says.

The last time we were at the Mokoenas’ Diepkloof, Soweto, home the lounge was filled with mourners speaking in hushed voices. Today it’s just Bontle.

She apologises on her mom’s behalf – Lollo won’t be joining us because she’s recovering from flu.

“I miss Karabo so much,” says Bontle, who works as an HR administrator.

“She was the other half of me.