Marry Me massacre victim was planning to marry girlfriend at time of death

The seventh victim of the Marry Me massacre, Philemon Mashabela, was planning to wed his girlfriend at the time of his tragic death.

This is according to his brother, Patrick, who says Mashabela is a father to five girls, whom he made it a priority to provide for and safe-guard.

“He had five children. They are all girls. He also had a girlfriend that he was willing to pay lobola for. He told us that she was the woman for him and that he was now ready to spend his entire life with her,” explains Patrick.

Mashabela succumbed to brain injuries while in hospital last week.

“Unfortunately his plans were cut short due to the incident in Marry Me. We have been deeply cut by this outcome as a family and it will for ever be engraved in our hearts and memories because this incident stole someone from us who was the family’s defense line,” adds Patrick.

The 32-year-old Community Policing Forum (CPF) patroller is described as a responsible and protective figure, who offered his assistance where he could.

According to his brother, Mashabela would rather put his life on the line in defense of his family and children.

He says Mashabela’s supportive and accountable demeanour rendered him fit to be a community patroller.

“He was a responsible individual that is why he was able to go out there to join the patrollers to help with the futile situation they have been faced with in Marry Me,” says Patrick.

Dikeledi Mnisi, who is Mashabela’s aunt, says the Marry Me massacre perpetrators should be handed over to the community as punishment for their crime.

Mnisi says although the family deemed Mashabela’s role as a patroller to be risky, they supported him, saying it was within his rights to choose being a community protector.

She says the Marry Me informal settlement has been notorious for crime for a while now.

She believes the assailants deserve to be afforded the same fate as the fallen CPF members, by the community.

“We have been deeply saddened by the news of Mashabela’s passing. If it was up to me I would say that after these criminals are caught, they should be handed over to the community so that they can be killed the same way the community patrollers were killed,” says Mnisi.

She says punishment by hanging should also be re-introduced. Mnisi believes community protectors are not supposed to die the way Mashabela and his colleagues did.

Mashabela’s brother, Patrick, says doctors informed them that his brain had suffered severe injuries and that chances of him surviving were slim.

“According to doctors, Philemon had massive head injuries. They had to perform surgery due to a clot on his small brain. His brain was even inflamed. The doctors did explain to us that they would do all they could to save him but chance of that happening, were very small,” says Patrick.

Mashabela had been kept alive by machines in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

“They said his brain had been too disturbed that it would no longer be able to send communication to his arms and legs. They said even though he might survive, he would most probably not be able to remember anything,” adds Patrick.

His memorial service will be held on Thursday and he will be laid to rest on Friday morning in Soshanguve.

The family says their ward councillor, Tshepo Pashasha, has been offering them assistance.

“So far he took a list from us of all the things we are in need of and told us that he will have feedback by tomorrow or Wednesday,” adds Patrick. Written by Odirile Rabolao