Programme Director;
Mama Masegate Tsebe and the entire Tsebe family;
Premier, University leadership, staff and students;
Community leaders;
Friends and fellow mourners.
We gather today with heavy hearts to bid farewell to Petra Mathaba Tsebe. At twenty-two, Petra had so much life ahead of her. There were examinations still to write, a degree still to complete, patients still to meet, and moments of joy still to share with those who loved her.
Today, we stand alongside a family whose hopes have been interrupted in the most painful way.
Mama Masegate, please accept my deepest condolences, and those of the Department of Higher Education and Training. Petra was your only child. No words from this platform can measure that loss. No title, no office and no prepared speech can make it easier.
We can only offer our presence, our compassion and our commitment to stand with you. Those who knew Petra have given us a picture of a young woman who took her studies seriously and cared deeply about others. Her lecturers speak of her hard work and commitment. Since beginning her medical studies in 2023, she had progressed through a demanding programme without failing a course. That achievement required discipline. It required hours of study, perseverance through difficult days, and the determination to keep going. But the tributes from her fellow students tell us something equally valuable about her.
They remember someone cheerful, dependable and supportive. Someone who could lift the spirits of a difficult classroom. Someone who made time for others while carrying the demands of her own studies. As chairperson of the University of Limpopo African Medical Students, Petra accepted responsibility for her peers. She understood that succeeding at university also means helping another student find their feet, offering encouragement when confidence fails, and making sure that nobody feels entirely alone. These are qualities we hope to find in a doctor.
Petra was already practising them in the way she treated people. Her passing is therefore felt in many places: in her home, among her friends, in the lecture room, and throughout the university community. It also reminds us of the promise carried by every young person who enters higher education.
Behind a student’s registration are years of effort. There are families who have made sacrifices, teachers who have encouraged them, and communities who look forward to what they will become. For a young woman pursuing medicine, that promise reaches even further. We imagine the people she might care for, the families she might reassure, and the communities she might serve.
We mourn all those possibilities today. Yet Petra’s life already had meaning. The kindness she showed, the friendships she built and the encouragement she gave are part of what she leaves with us.
To her classmates and friends: I know that returning to your studies will be difficult. There will be an empty place where Petra should have been. Ordinary moments may bring back memories without warning. Some days will be harder than others. Please give yourselves permission to grieve. Speak to someone you trust. Accept the counselling and support available to you. Look after one another, and allow others to look after you.
I acknowledge the university’s provision of counselling and its adjustment of academic activities. That care must continue beyond this week, because grief does not follow an academic timetable.
Fellow mourners, There are still unanswered questions about Petra’s death. The police investigation is continuing. The exact cause and circumstances have not yet been established. The family deserves a thorough investigation, clear communication and answers grounded in evidence.
I appeal to everyone who may have relevant information to assist the police. I also appeal for restraint in circulating unverified claims, images or accusations. A grieving mother should not have to encounter speculation about her child each time she opens her phone. Respect for Petra requires us to protect her dignity. Respect for her family requires us to seek the truth responsibly. At the same time, we must listen to the anxiety that students and parents are expressing.
When a parent sends a child to university, they place enormous trust in that institution and in the surrounding community. Students need safe routes, adequate lighting, maintained public spaces, accessible emergency assistance and a clear way to report danger. I will engage the university leadership on these practical questions, including cooperation with the municipality and the police around the campus. Students themselves must be heard in that work. They know the routes they use and the places where they feel unsafe.
We must examine those concerns carefully and act on identified risks, while allowing the investigation to establish what happened to Petra.
Mama Masegate and the Tsebe family, In the days ahead, the crowds will become smaller and the house quieter. That is when continued support matters most. May friends, neighbours, colleagues and the university community remain close to you. May their care be patient, practical and enduring.
To Petra’s fellow medical students: carry forward the generosity she showed you. Help a struggling classmate. Listen carefully. Treat the people entrusted to your care with dignity. In those acts, something of Petra’s contribution will continue.
We thank her family for sharing her life with this community.
We honour her effort, her leadership and her kindness.
May Petra Mathaba Tsebe rest in peace.
May her family find strength in the love surrounding them.
Thank you.