Grandmother and boyfriend charged with murders of two Soweto boys

The grandmother of one of the boys murdered in Soweto appeared together with her partner in the Protea magistrate's court on Friday.  

Nqobile Ndlovu, 50, and Mthunzi Musawenkosi Zulu, 39, are charged with two counts of murder, kidnapping, perjury and defeating the ends of justice. 

The duo, who initially chose to conduct their own defence, opted to acquire a legal representative after hearing about the gravity of the charges they are facing.  

Magistrate Tshepiso Maepa postponed the case to May 5 for a formal bail application and to allow Ndlovu to obtain her legal representative. Zulu intends to be represented by a lawyer from Legal Aid.  

Court proceedings took place at the same time as the funerals for Tshiamo Rabanye and Mduduzi Nqobizitha Zulu, aged six and five respectively. The boys were snatched from a park where they were playing and murdered. Their bodies were mutilated.   

Dressed in a black jacket, Rabanye's grandmother arrived in court covering her head with the jacket hood and wearing a cap. Zulu was dressed in a grey hoodie.  

Ndlovu's arrest last week came as a shock. She told TimesLIVE Premium at the scene of the gruesome discovery of the boys' bodies that she was shattered by their deaths.

She said she had helped report their disappearance to the police and participated in the search for them through the night.

On the day they went missing, she said she had left Rabanye playing with his cousin and a friend at home.

“When I returned, the family asked why I was returning alone and where was the child. I explained I left him at home. He apparently told them he left with me.

“We rushed to Moroka police station and the police were quick to assist us. We went to search for them at the local clinics and veld. We parted at about 3am and resumed the search in the morning.  

“A friend of theirs said they were all playing at Thokoza Park, but he left them there, so we went there and searched everywhere. While we were there, I got a call to return to White City with the police because the patrollers found a child. When we got here, I didn’t get too close to the scene. I recognised his clothes,” she said at the time.  

Ndlovu was Rabanye's guardian at the time of his death as he was an orphan.

“I’m so shattered, I don’t understand. It’s like I’m dreaming and I’ll wake up from this nightmare,” the shaken grandmother said at the time.  

A police source close to the investigation confirmed her co-accused, Zulu, was not related to Mduduzi Nqobizitha Zulu.   

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