A beautiful, vibrant, and healthy young woman suddenly develops a bad headache, loses consciousness, and mere hours later she is pronounced dead.
Naledi Ntsonta turned 17 years old on 23 July. She is described as a bubbly, spontaneous, spirit-filled child. The pastor of the Welkom Baptist Church, Joshua Bolaji, says they are shattered. “Naledi had brilliant health, no autoimmune disease.”
Naledi died on 30 July, at the Welkom MediClinic Hospital. Bolaji says Naledi came home from school on Wednesday and did homework and laundry, nothing out of the ordinary. Later in the afternoon she started complaining of a bad headache. “We were busy with the youth at church when her mother telephoned that she was unresponsive in the passage.”
Bolaji says she was transported to hospital but attempts to resuscitate her were futile and she was pronounced dead at the Welkom MediClinic Hospital. Naledi will be buried from the Baptist Church in Welkom on Saturday, 9 August, at 10:00.
Her mother, Tlaleng Ntsonta, is devastated by the sudden death of her daughter and awaits the autopsy results for more clarity on the cause of the child’s death.
She was so sweet and focused, kind, smart, she was that girl to everyone. She firmly believed in Christ, and I know she is now with the Lord. We will grieve, we will cry, we recognise this as a terrible moment, but we all know where she is now
Pastor Joshua Bolaji
Bolaji says Naledi was like a daughter to him. “She was so sweet and focused, kind, smart, she was that girl to everyone. She firmly believed in Christ, and I know she is now with the Lord. We will grieve, we will cry, we recognise this as a terrible moment, but we all know where she is now.”
Naledi was a Gr. 11 learner at the Welkom High School. “She was popular at school, always with a twinkle in her eye. She was an astute scholar and wanted to become a geologist when she left school.”
Bolajo says friends and family are finding it difficult to process her sudden and inexplicable death. “She was not ill. Her sudden death is puzzling.”
She is survived by her mother and brother, Vuyo (25).
