Mother guilty of culpable homicide

TONGA – Mahlalela appeared in the Tonga Magistrate’s Court on August 5 after her daughter, Faithful Masinga, died on May 16 last year.

According to magistrate, Mr Edgar Moletsane, the murder charge was changed to culpable homicide because the state had failed to prove and provide evidence that the accused intentionally strangled her child.

According to Mahlalela’s legal representative, on the way home from her grandmother’s place she became tired of walking and sat down under a tree. “While we were playing and laughing she accidentally slipped from my hand and fell against the rock with her head. She could no longer laugh or talk,” the court heard as Mahlalela’s lawyer read a statement she made before appearing in court.

It is alleged that Mahlalela left the child under the tree and ran to inform her mother of what had happened.

She returned to the scene with her mother and uncle who called the police and was arrested on the scene.

Moletsane postponed the case to August 27 for sentencing and extended the accused’s R1 000 bail.