A husband rushing his pregnant wife to hospital was stabbed to death by thugs which triggered her to give birth as he lay dying beside her.
Talent Gono, 34, and his wife Lilian, 33, were ambushed outside their home in Cape Town, South Africa, with thugs beating Talent and stabbing him in the chest and head.
The gang of eight attacked as Talent was carrying his pregnant wife’s overnight bags down to an Uber to go to hospital.
The shock of seeing her husband’s blood-soaked body caused Lilian’s water to break and she gave birth to a daughter just moments before he died.
Local residents at the Joe Slovo township were too scared to leave their homes to help her so she had to lie alone in the street cradling her newborn baby next to her slain husband.
Talent, a welder, had been saving for three years and had enough money to start a new life in his native Zimbabwe and was due to leave with his family in April.
UK wildlife artist Carol Cox, who knows the couple, sold a painting to support them. The proceeds paid for Talent’s equipment to start a future welding business.
Lilian has been now been left to support their daughter Mia, 5, and newborn daughter named Talent alone as South African Police hunt the killers.
To help save money, Lilian works 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.’
Toni Tresadern, 68, a family friend of Lilian and Talent who runs a place of safety for children 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.’
Ms Tresadern added: ‘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 newborn 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 Talent had already been declared dead.
‘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’.
