Pietermaritzburg - The pain and anguish of losing her only child when he was shot dead outside a Pietermaritzburg school by another pupil more than a year ago was still fresh for his mother, who implored the city’s regional court on Wednesday to send the killer to jail for ever.
An emotional Portia Nakile was adamant her son Akhona Nakile, 15, was not a bully. Had he been, he would have gone to his killer’s school for a confrontation and not the other way around, she reasoned.
The accused, now 17, pleaded guilty last year to the killing of Umsilinga Primary School pupil Akhona, the attempted murder of another 17-year-old from the same school (who cannot be named because he is a minor) and to being in possession of an unlawful firearm and ammunition, in November 2014.
Nakile was shot in the neck. The bullet exited and hit the other pupil in the cheek. The incident took place after school, outside the school premises.
The accused was from another school.
Testifying in aggravation of sentence, Nakile often broke down in tears.
“He (the accused) left his school and went to my son’s school to kill him. I want him to spend the rest of his life in prison. Akhona was my beneficiary. I used to save every cent so he could continue with school.
“The most painful thing was burying my son when I had buried my husband that September. As a result of Akhona’s death, I am left alone.”
Since the incident she had been sick, she said.
“I get headaches and they don’t go away ... I won’t be able to forgive anyone.”
She said she had received counselling but had stopped. She lived in Kokstad and her son was living with her mother at the time of the incident.
Nakile added that counselling was a temporary thing for her. As soon as she left the councillor’s room, the headaches would return.
“I believe eventually God will help me find peace,” she said.
Magistrate Rose Magwera advised Nakile to go back to the counselling sessions. She said if the killer were to be given a jail term, it would not help the mother get rid of her burden.
Nakile said her son was well behaved. Asked what sentence she would want him to get if he were in the killer’s shoes, she said she would want him to be punished, because he went to the school intending to kill.
The accused said in his plea that he shot Akhona because he could not take being bullied any more.
A clinical psychologist had told the court the boy had an ongoing conflict with Nakile and his friends because of a girl. He had not seen them for two weeks before the shooting. The day he took his father’s gun to school, he had no intention to use it. He met the other boys, and one took out a knife and he took out the gun.
The Mercury