She was seven months pregnant when she was attacked and stabbed seven times during a robbery in Johannesburg.
Sizakele Mkhalipha walks for 30km every day to and from her work as a cashier at a petrol station in Witbank, Mpumalanga.
The 39-year-old tells Drum that at 20:00 one evening while making her way home to her two-room shack in Hlalani Kahle, a man covered in a brown stocking came from behind and choked her while trying to take her handbag.
"He tried to strangle me with one hand and pulled my bag with the other hand," she says.
Shocked yet brave, Sizakele allegedly managed to bite the robber's hand and they wrestled for her handbag.
'I fell on my stomach'
What followed made her fear for the life of her unborn child.
"The man kicked me on my lower back and I fell on my stomach," she says.
"I thought that I was going to have a miscarriage or that my baby was going to have a disability," she tells Drum.
Helpless and injured on the gravel road in a dark street, Sizakele felt a sharp pain on the left side of her stomach.
"I tried to cover my stomach to protect my baby but when I turned to around to look around, I saw that he had a sharp knife in his hand," she adds.
"I thought my baby and I were going to die and I would never see my children again," she says.
'It was as If I had lost my voice'
The mother of 14-year-old Mbalenhle and 7-year-old Mpilenhle tried to scream but her voice could not come out.
"I tried to scream but it was as If I had lost my voice."
"I just felt a sharp burning pain on my back and I knew he was stabbing me. But everything happened so fast," she says.
"When my voice eventually came out; I saw blood everywhere," she says.
The last thing Sizakele remembers is seeing a man and woman coming out of a nearby house and she woke up in hospital.
"I had blacked out from losing blood. The doctors told me that I had been stabbed seven times on my back and I had been unconscious for 30 minutes," she adds.
"I don't know why God saved me and my baby," she says. Sizakele spent three days in the hospital while being treated by doctors.
'I am blessed to be alive'
On March 6, 2019, she gave birth to healthy baby boy Melokuhle Mkhalipha.
"I am blessed to be alive, but I am too afraid to even walk out of my house when the sun sets," she says.
Since the incident happened Sizakele has not been able to go back to work as she fears for her safety and is still trying to recover from the shallow knife wounds.
"My back still hurts especially when I stand for long hours and I struggle with sitting in one position while breastfeeding my son," she says.
Now, Sizakele relies on her mother Violet Sindane's pension and her government grant to help pay for her children's school fees, transport, and food.
"As soon as I am back on my feet, I will look for work."
"But I won't give up. God gave me a second chance in life and I will use it to provide for my children," she says.
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