NELSPRUIT – The shocking revelation of how a six-year-old girl’s tongue, heart and intestines were cut out of her while she was still alive was revealed when a muti murder trial resumed. This after judge Mr Collin Lamot ruled in favour of the state after a trial within a trial in the circuit of the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
The accused, Ms Thabile Mnisi (29), Ms Stella Sibongile Mnisi (46) and Mr Sifiso Wonder Vilakazi (21), appeared on charges of murder, kidnapping and the business proposition of selling children for their body parts on Monday. They are accused of the brutal murder and mutilation of Dimaksu Shabangu.
Despite the state stating that it had had a witness seeing Thabile take the child to the river, Lamot had discharged her as he said the state did not have enough evidence against her.
The horrific crime had occurred on April 21, 2009 at Masibekela Trust in the Nkomazi subregion.
Stella testified that she had said in her statement that the child’s tongue, heart and intestines had been cut out and after that she had died, and her body was then put into a plastic bag.
She stated she was told to say this by her co-accused Vilikazi under instruction by police as she had viewed the body with the police when they had found the child in the river. Stella said she had been part of the community policing forum and she said she felt she should never have helped the cops. She was arrested for the crime after the public had alerted the police.
Lt Col John Madonsela testified about the pointing out on where Vilikazi had shown the police where they had killed the child and put her body into a bag and then taken her to the river. He said the accused had also shown him where they had burnt the bag afterwards.
Lamot also barred the media from publishing the photos due to the sensitive nature of the trial.
Last week in court Ms Goodness Mahlalela (33), the mother of the deceased, said she had left her daughter with Thabile, who was her neighbour, to go and harvest morogo. When she returned the accused said she had gone out and when she came back the daughter and her own two children had left. Mahlalela stated that she then assumed the child had gone to her father.
The following day she and the accused went to the father’s house, only to find that her daughter had not been there. They then went to the elders. The mother testified that when an elder asked Thabile about the child, she replied that she had not killed her.
Dimaksu’s body was found five days after she was reported missing floating in a nearby river. Her left hand had been severed, tongue cut out and there was an incision from her navel to the end of her buttocks. The private parts had also been removed.
The trial continues.
