A family WhatsApp group that Tshegofatso Pule set up eight months before she died has become her legacy.
And Pule's family will form a united front when her murder accused, Muzikayise Malephane, appears in the high court in Johannesburg next Friday, where he is expected to plead guilty to her murder.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said Malephane's legal team had entered into a guilty plea verbal agreement.
"If all goes well we are expecting he will plead guilty on February 19 when the case is back in court," she said.
The 28-year-old Pule was eight months pregnant when she was stabbed and her bloodstained body was found hanging from a tree in the Durban Deep area of Roodepoort in June last year.
A rope had been tied around her neck and looped over a branch and her body hoisted aloft. A line where the rope was strung remains etched in the bark of the tree.
Her family last saw her when she went with her boyfriend, Ntuthuko Shoba, to buy clothes for the baby. She later sent them a text message saying she and Shoba had argued and she was coming home.
CCTV cameras captured images of her leaving Shoba's apartment block in a grey Jeep on June 4 last year. She was not seen again until her corpse was found four days later.
Shortly after the murder, Malephane's mother told the Sunday Times that her son and Shoba had grown up together. She spoke on condition that she not be identified by name, saying she did not want to jeopardise her good standing in her church.
"Shoba and my son were good friends when they were younger; they grew up together when we lived in Pimville," she said.
Pule's family still finds it hard to move on.
"By now the baby could have been six months old and that is painful for us as a family," her aunt Tidimalo Mothapo told the Sunday Times.
"We were still planning a baby shower and wanted to buy stuff for her, but then she died. We won't rest until justice is served for the both of them," Mothapo said.
"We will attend court and all we are hoping that whoever did this to Tshego will admit it and they will be punished for what they did to our daughter. It won't bring her back, but unfortunately justice must be served."
Mothapo said they hold on to the memories and the legacy Pule left behind.
She said that in December 2019 Pule created a WhatsApp group for four members - sisters and cousins.
She encouraged the family to spend more time together and had also planned a trip to Happy Island Waterworld in Muldersdrift.
"Unfortunately that never happened. I would say that this is the legacy she left with us, because even now we still have that WhatsApp group chat - but it is no longer the four of us but the entire family.
"She brought us together as a family. We will always [thank] her for that and that is the gift she left us with."
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