“We could see her slipping away moment by moment. We gave her to God just before 2pm that afternoon. Both [my wife] Jaen-Mari and I said to God it’s okay, He could take her.”

Two weeks after his daughter’s death, the shocking scene of the car accident that claimed her life still haunts this father of three. His sister’s partner’s body had been pinned in the driver’s seat of the wreck. On the back seat, his three children’s belongings were scattered.

Weeks after the crash in which his three children, his sister and her partner were involved, it still feels as if a part of him died along with Angel-Lee, 9, that day, Tommie Blignaut, 41, who works in the mining industry, tells YOU.

“We’re shattered, our hearts are broken. One simply doesn’t know how to come to terms with this kind of loss,” he says.

The community of eMalahleni, Mpumalanga, where the Blignauts – Tommie and his wife, Jaen-Mari, 33, and their three children, Angel-Lee, Caylin, 13, and Jesse James, 5, are from –  has been in mourning for the little girl who family members describe as “a ray of sunshine”.

The accident, his worst nightmare, happened on June 29, Tommie says. He and Jaen-Mari had just arrived home at about 5pm from a family outing to Pretoria when Jaen-Mari’s cellphone rang.

She answered the call, which came from an unknown number.

“Madam, were your children travelling with your sister-in-law?” the caller wanted to know.

Angel-Lee, Caylin and Jesse James had indeed been in the car with Tommie’s sister, Rina Marais, and her partner, Koos Meyer. They’d been on their way to visit the kids’ grandparents when they were in a head-on collision on the N14 highway.

Tommie and Jaen-Mari raced to the scene of the accident.

“A paramedic called me from the scene to update me,” Tommie says. “The most horrific things go through your mind. You don’t know what you’ll find when you get there – you’re just praying that your loved ones are alive.”

^{Jesse James. (Supplied)}

By the time Tommie and Jaen-Mari got to the scene, Koos had already been declared dead. An ambulance had taken Rina, Caylin and Jesse James to the Lenmed Randfontein hospital. Angel-Lee had been airlifted to the Busamed Modderfontein private hospital.

“I hadn’t wanted Jaen-Mari to see the devastation. I walked up to the wreck on my own and saw Koos’ body still trapped inside. My daughter’s shoes were on the back seat. It was extremely traumatic,” Tommie says, his voice crackling with emotion.

Rina’s brow bone and jaw were broken, and her left arm crushed. Jesse James had serious bruises and his one lung had collapsed. Caylin had a broken pelvis, shoulder and jaw.

“Angel-Lee’s condition was critical – that’s why she was taken elsewhere. Both her legs were broken. At the hospital an artery ruptured internally.”

One of the passengers in the other vehicle was also killed but no further information about the other car is known.

Tommie says Angel-Lee’s condition steadily deteriorated. On July 1, two days after the accident, doctors called her parents to the hospital.

^{Caylin. (Supplied)}

“The doctor told us [on the phone] they were losing her. It was 12.15pm. I asked him to call me back and he put the phone to her ear. I told her, ‘My love, Mommy and Daddy are on our way. Just hold on.’

“It was horrible seeing her in hospital. There were tubes in her throat and her eyes were taped shut. They’d performed brain surgery earlier. We could see her slipping further and further away each moment. Just before 2pm, we gave her to God.”

The family are trying to pick up the pieces of their life. Caylin and Jesse James have been discharged and though Rina is still in hospital, her condition is stable.

“Our home has never felt this empty. It feels like something’s missing. And there is: our little girl. The children ask about her, but what do you tell them?

^{Angel-Lee remembered. (Supplied)}

“All we can say is that she’s with Jesus. We don’t know if we’ll ever get used to the loss, if it’s ever going to stop hurting. But we know she’s with God – that’s our only comfort right now.”

A memorial service for Angel-Lee was held on July 11.

President Cyril Ramaphosa took a subtle dig at the previous administration, criticising frequent Cabinet reshuffles, “bling and blue lights” and an “endless focus on petty squabbles”.

With most political junkies’ focus on Johannesburg, where former president Jacob Zuma refused to be cross-examined at the Zondo commission into state capture, Ramaphosa addressed the National Assembly in Cape Town during the debate on the budget of the Presidency. 

He said the Presidency should develop and implement a “national policy in a coherent and cohesive manner to remove policy uncertainty”.

“In the past, this envisioned co-ordination has weakened,” he added.

“Frequent reshuffles of ministers and a high turnover of senior managers at both national and provincial governments have led to instability, misalignment and confusion.”

He said the government should be “machinery that learns from its mistakes and take decisive steps to correct the situation”.

“We are here to work for our people. The endless focus on petty squabbles, on intra-party politics and on political brinkmanship does not serve our people well.

“In the spirit of Madiba, I call upon each member of this House to commit themselves to collaboration across the political divide.”

He said this administration’s task was to restore hope to the people, and regain their trust. 

“We want, indeed we need, a joined-up government, one that works for the people.” 

“The executive of the sixth administration will speak with one voice. It will not pursue pet projects that are disjointed and misaligned with national priorities. 

“It will epitomise a caring state that is prudent with public finances and that derives its respect from masses through hard work and not outward shows of excess like bling and blue lights,” Ramaphosa said.

“This administration will be accountable to the people of South Africa. Ministers will have to answer questions in Parliament, and participate in portfolio committees.”

He said his would be a presidency that acted.

However, opposition leaders warned him to not follow in the footsteps of his predecessor.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane reminded him that he had sat in the House as Jacob Zuma’s Number Two.

“And you were silent then. Will you continue to be silent now, as your party is flayed and its entrails laid out at the commission?”

He challenged Ramaphosa to go to the Zondo commission and “set the record straight”. 

“We need a president who acts, not one who sits idly by.

“In the words of former president [Nelson] Mandela, ‘We can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities. And we dare not linger for our long walk is not ended’,” Maimane said to groans from the ANC benches. 

“You dare not linger, Mr President.

“You need to choose your country over your party. You need to change what isn’t working, because simply doing more of the same will get us nowhere,” Maimane said.

“If you choose the path of reform, you will have an ally in the DA. Together, we can rebuild the consensus we lost as a nation – a new 2019 consensus that will see us through the next 10 years.”

EFF leader Julius Malema warned Ramaphosa not to “outsource” his presidency to a “cabal”. 

He continued the party’s attack on State Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, or “honourable Jamnandas” as he consistently referred to him. 

Gordhan did not show much emotion during Malema’s tirade, except toward the end when he said something to Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe with an annoyed expression.

Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu came to Gordhan’s defence.

“Why do the EFF pursue Gordhan so much? Why this anarchic pursuit of the stalwart of the revolution?”

Mthembu provided three reasons, the first being its “hatred of Indians”. 

“You’re racist,” he said.

Mthembu added in the process of cleaning up corruption at state-owned enterprises, Gordhan “stepped on some corrupt EFF cronies”. 

“They’re trying very hard to try and deviate from their friends dealing in illicit cigarettes,” Mthembu said.

“And now Pravin becomes a scapegoat.

“Honourable president, don’t be deterred by these howlers,” Mthembu said, turning to Ramaphosa.

While he spoke, EFF MPs grumbled about “Jackson Gordhan”. 

Deputy President David Mabuza pledged his support to Ramaphosa. 

Toward the end of his 30-minute speech, he said to Ramaphosa: “We commit to travel with you in good times and bad times.”