Child’s murder case continues in court
According to the charge sheet the post mortem results reveal that the left hand and tongue of the victim were cut off, her body was cut open from her navel to the end of her buttocks on the inside of both legs and all her organised and intestines as well as private parts removed.
NELSPRUIT -The trial over the gruesome murder of a 6-year-old girl who was left in the care of a 29-year old woman who was later charged with the child’s muti-murder, continues in the Nelspruit circuit of the Gauteng High Court.
The woman, Ms Thabile Mnisi and her co accused Ms Stella Zulu (46), Mr Sfiso Vilakazi (21), Mr Jeremiah Ngwenya (26) and Mr Judas Mandlazi (22) have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping of Dimakatso Shabangu from Masibekela Trust on April 21 2009.
The victim’s mother,Ms Goodness Mahlalela testified in court that her child went missing while in the care of her child minder, Mnisi. She testified that when she came back from picking some leafy vegetable, she enquired of the whereabouts of the victim so that she can have some meals and Mnisi told her that she left the child behind when she went to Sibange village.
“She said the child had tried to follow her, but she instructed her to go back home. Then I said maybe her father took her with him after finding that she was home alone.”
Mahlalela said Mnisi suggested the next day that they go to the child’s father’s place to get the child and both women went there, but couldn’t find the child then Mnisi suggested that they report the missing child to the headman. Mahlalela continues to say the headman asked Mnisi as to how she can tell the child to go back home knowing that her mother was not there. “And she replied that she would never kill any child because she was taking care of children,” she said.
Mahlalela told the court that she hired Mnisi to look after her child out of the goodness of her heart, but was shocked to learn that she might be involved in the horrific murder.
Mr Sifiso Comfort Mbokodo ( 29) testified how he and his late brother made the gruesome discovery of Dimakatso’s body on April 25 of the same year. He told the court that they were crossing the river where he saw something floating in the river, and after taking a step closer he saw that it was the body of a child wearing something red. He then called police to the scene, but the police did not come and he then hiked to the police station to report his discovery. He said when he returned with police to the scene they find the body in the same place where he was left .
According to the charge sheet the post mortem results reveal that the left hand and tongue of the victim were cut off, her body was cut open from her navel to the end of her buttocks on the inside of both legs and all her organised and intestines as well as private parts removed.
Mnisi and Vilakazi are out on R3 000 bail while Zulu, Ngwenya and Mandlazi are out on R5 000 bail.
The matter continues.
