A South African woman who stabbed a man to death and seriously injured two others when she caught them gang-raping her daughter has described her joy after seeing the two surviving attackers jailed.
The 57-year-old woman, dubbed "Lion Mama" following her actions in protecting her 27-year-old daughter, said she is "relieved" after the rapists were each jailed for 30 years at South Africa's Lady Frere Magistrate's Court in the Eastern Cape province on 15 December
"I am happy about the judgment. I'm relieved. All I want is for people to be punished for doing wrong," the mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told News24. "The truth finally came out. Even if it was my own child who had done the crime, I would want them to get reprimanded for doing something wrong."
The woman attacked the three men on September 1, 2017. She reportedly ran more than two miles armed with the kitchen knife she had taken from her home after her daughter's friend alerted her to the ongoing rape, reports MailOnline.
"Lion Mama" is said to have taken matters into her own hands after not getting a response from her local police station. After running the two miles, the mother burst into the house and attacked the rapists. Zamile Siyeka was killed, and Xolisa Siyeka and Mncedisi Vuba were seriously injure, IOL reported.
The woman was later charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder, prompting outrage in South Africa. An online fundraiser was launched by a Cape Town woman to help with her legal fees, with attorneys and other legal experts inspired by her actions offering to represent her free of charge, reports News24.
In October 2017, the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa announced that they would be dropping all charges against her.
In the wake of the sentencing of Siyeka, 24, and Vuba, 31, the mother decried the lack of opportunities for young people in the crime ridden area of South Africa.
"Maybe if there could be a space where people gather, where people can put their hands to use and be able to do something, maybe crime could decrease. If the youth could get jobs and maybe the level of crime could go down," she told News24.
"I like it when young people are inspired, when they go to school. The key to life is in education. You find that most people who commit these crimes are people who haven't gone to school, who didn't get an education."
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