It’s been a year and four months since the mutilated bodies of two young boys, Tshiamo Rabanye and Mduduzi Zulu, were found just kilometres away from each other in Soweto, but the question still being asked — first by the mother of one of the children and now by the Johannesburg high court — is why they were murdered.
The case of a Soweto grandmother and her boyfriend arrested in connection with the murders of the two boys, one of whom was her grandson, has again been delayed.
Nqobile Ndlovu and her boyfriend Mthunzi Musawenkosi Zulu were back in the Johannesburg high court for a plea and sentence agreement in terms of section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act to be finalised.
They have been charged with two counts of murder and are yet to plead.
They were arrested in April 2023, just days after Rabanye and Zulu’s bodies were discovered.
Ndlovu was Rabanye’s paternal grandmother and guardian at the time of his death, as he was an orphan.
Zulu, five, was found with his nose, lips and private parts removed, while Rabanye, six, was found with a slit throat and his private parts removed.
Proceedings began with judge Gcina Malindi raising numerous concerns about the submission made by Ndlovu.
“Just on the facts, one of my concerns is that it is not stated what happened [regarding] the alleged insurance taken out on the children.”
Advocate Alie Mathebula, for the state, clarified that the insurance, which appears to have been a funeral policy, covered only Rabanye.
Another issue Malindi flagged was Ndlovu’s failure to explain why both the children were killed.
Her lawyer, advocate Innocent Mthembu, tried to explain that Ndlovu didn’t know what came over her at the time of the alleged murders.
“We’re not even saying the first [child] was killed because of insurance. She’s saying she doesn’t know what [came over] her. We don’t know what the motive [was],” he said.
“There must be some explanation for what she did,” an unconvinced Malindi said regarding Ndlovu’s “vague” submission. This was especially so since she had never been mentally evaluated.
A third concern that came up in court related to Ndlovu’s own three deceased children, with Malindi noting that, while he knew they had died, there had been no explanation as to the circumstances surrounding their deaths. The sentence itself also came under scrutiny.
Both the defence and the state agreed to a week’s postponement for a pretrial conference to be held, with the proviso that, if the concerns raised about the plea bargain were satisfactorily addressed, the matter would not proceed to trial.
“The plea bargain and sentence agreement were presented to the court for consideration, [but] the proposed agreement has not been placed before the court yet, because it raised a number of concerns about the adequacy of the statement.
I feel the pain of his death every day. Everyone keeps asking, ‘Where is Nqobizitha?’, and his father and I keep fighting over this. Everyone misses him so much.
— Nomthandazo Zulu
“A bit of time will be required for the defence to consult to address the inadequacies therein. In the circumstances, there won’t be enough time for the defence to consider these concerns today, so the matter should then be postponed,” the judge said.
Also present in court was Zulu’s heartbroken mother, Nomthandazo, who struggled to contain her tears before and during the proceedings. She could be heard sobbing while Malindi poked holes in Ndlovu’s submission, particularly about why her son was killed.
Speaking outside court after the postponement, the question she had asked outside the Protea magistrate’s court after she faced Ndlovu for the first time after her arrest remained: why did she kill her son?
“I feel the pain of his death every day. Everyone keeps asking, ‘Where is Nqobizitha?’, and his father and I keep fighting over this. Everyone misses him so much.
“She must explain why she killed him. For what reason did she do it? She must tell the world why she did it,” she said tearfully.
Nomthandazo said she thought about her son every day, and even dreamt of him regularly.
She questioned the possible motives Ndlovu may have had for the alleged murders, including a possible issue she may have had with Zulu’s parents. She said that, while she’d left it all in God’s hands, she still needed to account for what had happened.
The distraught mother also touched on the deaths of Ndlovu’s own three children, saying questions had been raised over the years about this issue, but there had been no answers.
“I always questioned the circumstances about these deaths, but no-one took this seriously. If they had, maybe my child would still be alive, as well as ... her grandchild,” she said.
Ndlovu and Zulu remain in custody.
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