Zakhele's family lived a miserable life that was marred by illness and death. Every year they buried a family member who died after a short illness or in a car accident.
Resentment and anger were what Mathapelo felt towards her parents who left her and her younger sister when they were aged only seven and five years. Her father took Mathapelo and her sister to live with their grandmother after their mother went to look for a job in Johannesburg.
