THABO Ntokozo Theodore Nzimande (33), who on Thursday (July 16) was found guilty of the 2024 murder of his grandmother, will be sentenced in September.

Acting Judge Mpumelelo Sibisi, sitting at the Durban High Court on Friday (July 17), set the sentencing proceedings for September 21 and 22.

Handing down judgment on Thursday, Sibisi said Nzimande’s version that he had blacked out on the night of the murder was “clearly manufactured”, and that during trial, this claim could not be medically explained by experts on the witness stand.

In his evaluation of the evidence, Sibisi said when the doctor who performed the post mortem on Nzimande’s grandmother, Beata Beatrice de Lange (80), testified, they could not comment on whether the grandmother was still alive when her head was severed.

Sibisi said the doctor, however, told the court that the other injuries she had sustained on her body from a sharp instrument or knife would not have caused her immediate death and had she been timeously rushed for treatment for these, she could have survived.

The court heard that two knives were found near De Lange’s decapitated body which lay in a pool of blood inside the granny flat in Pinetown.

Sibisi said the doctor also found abrasions on De Lange’s head, which were possibly from Nzimande having kicked and thrown it around.

Also read: Grandson in grandmother’s decapitation case found guilty

The acting judge also said the psychiatrist who handled Nzimande’s case when he was sent to Fort Napier for mental observation to determine if he was fit for trial, testified that the medication the convicted murderer had received from a rehabilitation centre was unlikely to cause auditory hallucinations.

Some witnesses had testified that Nzimande had said, at different times, that his ancestors had told him to commit the murder.

The psychiatrist, during their testimony, would not comment on Nzimande’s state of mind at the time of the incident but said it was sound during his mental observation at the hospital.

Sibisi said testimony from Nzimande’s uncle, John Ngcobo, demonstrated that he had been alone with De Lange at the granny flat where the woman was murdered.

He added that testimony from the first police officers at the scene, that Nzimande’s clothes were blood-stained, as well as his hands, pointed to him being the only one present at De Lange’s time of death.

The acting judge said the State had proved Nzimande’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt and had led sufficient and credible evidence linking him to the murder.

Sibisi said there had been no evidence that Nzimande’s taking of medication over the prescribed dosage and smoking of dagga before passing out, as per his testimony, resulted in some involuntary actions.

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