Talent Gono, 34, was stabbed repeatedly in the head and chest while his pregnany wife Lilian, 33, watched on in horror – with the ordeal so horrifying that it triggered her labour, giving birth beside her dead partner in Cape Town, South Africa
A husband rushing his pregnant wife to hospital was stabbed to death by thugs before the shock triggered her labour.
Distraught Lilian Gono, 33, and husband Talent, 34, were ambushed as they left their home as the father was beaten to the ground and stabbed in the chest and head. The gang of eight stabbed him repeatedly in Cape Town, South Africa, as he was carrying his wife’s overnight bags down to an Uber to go to hospital. The shock of her husband’s blood-soaked body caused her waters to break and she gave birth to a daughter just moments before he took his final breath.
Local residents at the Joe Slovo township were too scared to leave their homes to help her so she lay cuddling her newborn baby alone. Welder Talent had been saving for three years and had just saved enough money to start a new life in his native Zimbabwe and was due to leave for there in April.
UK wildlife artist Carol Cook, who knows the couple, sold a painting to support them which paid for his equipment to start a future welding business. Wife Lilian has been now been left to support their daughter Mia, 5, and newborn daughter – who she named after her father Talent – alone as South African Police hunt the killers. To help save money Lilian worked as a maid and her employer Jeannie Ross set up a Back a Buddy campaign to raise money for the funeral.
Jeannie said: “I got a voice message from Lilian screaming and sobbing in shock and confusion saying she had gone down to the Uber with Talent. A group of thugs attacked him in the dark beating him mercilessly and stabbed him in the head, stomach and chest leaving him in a pool of blood.
“Lilian tried to help but was overtaken by searing pain as her waters broke and lying there beside her dying husband she gave birth to their baby girl. Their babies first cry filled the night just as he took his last breath. Lilian now faces an unimaginable road ahead raising two children without the man who was their anchor so I am trying to raise funds to help.” The fundraiser to help Lilian and her two young daughters can be found here.
Toni Tresadern, 68, a family friend who runs a children’s charity said: “What happened was utterly appalling. They beat him to the ground with a blunt instrument then repeatedly stabbed him and as he lay dying his wife gave birth lying on the floor beside him. Talent passed away a few seconds after she was born.
“The thugs walked off and were looking back laughing. They had taken a life for an old phone and the baby bag that was to go with Lilian to hospital. She lay alone in the road with her new-born baby beside her dead husband as everyone was too scared to come out until the ambulance arrived.”
South African Police spokesman Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi said that officers arrived at a medical clinic to find the victim’s murdered body. He said: “The deceased had been declared dead from stab wounds at the scene by medical personnel and the unknown suspects fled and are being hunted. The motive for this attack is robbery and it is being treated as murder”.