NHLALWENHLE Magwaza, 7, of Umbumbulu, whose remains were found on January 8 after going missing near her home on November 23, 2025, will finally be buried after DNA tests confirmed the remains to be hers. She will be laid to rest on May 10 after a service at her home.

Also read: Suspected child killer expected back in Umbumbulu Court

The remains were found near a local river after Siyabonga Mbili, 40, pointed them out. He made his first appearance in the Umbumbulu Magistrate’s Court on January 12, where he offered to make a full confession. He was referred for psychiatric evaluation, which concluded that he was fit to stand trial.

When the child went missing, she had been walking home from a nearby shop. For months, an extensive search for her proved fruitless, but in January, a traditional healer alerted the police that a man had come to him asking to be cleansed as a child that he had allegedly killed was troubling him in his nightmares.

After he was arrested, Mbili admitted to the police that the child he had allegedly killed was Nhlalwenhle and pointed out where he had discarded the body. He is also related to the child’s family.

As the case got underway again on May 6, Nhlalwenhle’s aunt, Tee Magwaza, asked for community members to show support in court.

“We want justice for Nhlalwenhle,” she said.

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