KICKED OUT
Barely an hour after burying her husband, and while grief still hung heavy in the air, Khumanego Ramalepa (née Kgosiemang) found herself being kicked out of her matrimonial home in Mochudi.
What was supposed to be a moment of mourning and comfort turned into a public humiliation, as she was told to leave the very home she had shared with her late husband, immediately after returning from the cemetery.
The incident, which unfolded this past Sunday in Mochudi, has left residents in shock.
Still dressed in mourning attire, having just come from laying her husband Buang Ramalepa to rest, Khumanego was met not with sympathy but hostility.
It all started when she was informed by elders from her husband’s family that she should return to her house in Rasesa.
As if that was not enough, a section of the family seated under a tent began shouting in unison that she should leave, making it painfully clear that she was no longer welcome.
The atmosphere quickly turned chaotic, so intense was the pressure that her own family began preparing to leave with her, packing her belongings and placing them outside.
For a moment, it seemed the widow would be forced out of the home she had shared with her husband.
But on second thought, she stood her ground.
“I told them I was not leaving; if anything, I will call the police to intervene,” she said.
Police were called to the scene, where they allegedly confirmed that she was legally married and advised both families to resolve the matter amicably.
It is this intervention that has, for now, stopped what could have been an immediate eviction of Mrs Ramalepa.
However, according to Mrs Ramalepa, what happened on Sunday was not sudden; it was an explosion of tensions that had been boiling over leading up to the Sunday altercation.
Her husband passed away on the 6th of April, and the days leading up to the burial on the 10th of April were meant to be a time of unity, mourning, and support, but it had been a tense and emotionally draining period marked by division and conflict.
“It was not nice at all; there was no coming together. It was back and forth the whole week,” she said. Adding that she has not slept a wink since the day her husband died.
She told The Midweek Sun that her relationship with the deceased Buang Ramalepa began in 2017 after they met in Rasesa.
What started as a friendship slowly grew into something more serious over the years, and in 2024, their lives took a dramatic turn when Mr Ramalepa lost his sight.
“That is when we sat down and spoke about our future; we realised that we could not continue as just boyfriend and girlfriend.”
In October 2025, they formalised their union; it was not a grand wedding but a simple legal process at the District Commissioner’s office, attended only by the couple and their witnesses.
“We did not have money for a big wedding; we planned to celebrate later,” she said.
She said they were living together in Mochudi on a plot she believes belongs to her husband, a yard she said was given to him by his grandfather.
According to her, they had even begun making improvements, including installing electricity, and were in the process of formalising ownership of most of their properties when he died.
“He was not sick for long; he just said he was suffocating and could not breathe. We rushed him to the hospital, but he passed on.
I called his family, but when they arrived, they took him to the morgue without telling me. They even left me at the hospital,” she said.
Alone and overwhelmed, she returned home, only for the family to come to her house a few hours later to inform her that her husband had died.
“They apologised when I told them what had happened earlier at the hospital, and I decided to accept their apology and came back.”
However, things were awkward, as on the very day she returned, she overheard conversations questioning her presence in the home.
“They were asking who I am and why I was inside the house,” she said.
Her marriage became a point of contention, family members furiously demanding to see her marriage certificate, something she initially hesitated to provide.
“I did not understand why they wanted it,” she said.
Eventually, she explained that their marriage had been formalised legally, even though it had not been celebrated traditionally due to financial constraints.
What fuelled these tensions, she said, was her strained relationship with her late husband’s children from a previous relationship.
“There has never been peace between us, at some point; we were at each other’s throats when their father was still alive.”
So serious was the issue that the matter is now before village authorities and is yet to be heard before the court.
Meanwhile, the children claim that life in the household changed for the worse after Mrs Ramalepa entered their father’s life.
They admitted that they have a pending case before the court and have been advised to stay away from each other.
“Things were not okay until her arrival, to an extent that cooking was done in two separate pots whenever she was around.”
They said that, given the strained relations, they cannot live with her under one roof.
Meanwhile, what became clear is that the bone of contention is the yard itself.
While Mrs Rmalepa maintains it belongs to her husband, her husband’s family disputes this claim.
An elder in the family who identified himself as Matlola Abolela, uncle to the deceased, said the land belongs to him and his siblings, explaining that the deceased’s father had only been taking care of it.
“When he passed on, it was left to Ramalepa to stay there, but that does not mean it was his,” he said.
He added that if the property had been formally transferred, the family would have been informed.
“For now, we know the yard is ours. If anything changed, we will find out how,” he said.
The family also denied forcibly evicting Mrs Ramalepa from her matrimonial home.
“We did not chase her away; we only asked her to go back to her home for peace.”
However, he admitted that some individuals did act out of emotion on Sunday.
“Yes, some people shouted that she should go,” he said.
Abolela said the situation escalated after a goodbye message Mrs Ramalepa wrote to her husband was read out on the morning of the burial.
In the message, she allegedly expressed that her husband had left her in trouble and vowed to continue pursuing a case involving one of his children.
“That is what proved there was no peace, and we simply asked her to go,” he said.
For their part, Mrs Ramalepa's family added that they feared for her safety when people shouted that she should go.
“It was hostile; we were ready to take her away because no one was controlling the situation.”
They claim elders from the deceased’s family failed to intervene while insults were being hurled, suggesting that they were in support of what was being said.
“I am not leaving this home. It is a yard my husband loved because he said it connected him to his ancestors. I want to stay here and honour his memory.
If the children have a problem with me, they can move to his other plot in Boseja. I have no problem giving it to them, but I will not be bullied here.
I admit that I wrote that message; it was my way of saying goodbye to my husband,” Mrs Ramalepa said.