Durban - Family, friends and supporters of slain Villa Maria Primary School principal, Nokuthula Magwanyana, toyi-toyied outside the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court as three men charged with her murder appeared briefly on Tuesday.
Carrying placards with the words “Justice for our black female teacher” and “No bail for killers”, some relatives said they were still dealing with the trauma of her brutal death.
“The people who killed her must pay for their crimes,” an emotional relative cried.
Hampanga Ngcobo, 30, Nkosingphile Zuma, 19, and Mduduzi Mkhize, 22, were arrested and initially charged for possession of stolen property after allegedly being found in possession of Magwanyana’s cellphone.
However, after investigations, the charge sheet was amended and reflected charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The trio were remanded in jail until next week for a formal bail application.
Magwanyana, 45, was murdered on August 23.
It is alleged that she had been harassed and intimidated to resign from her post as principal of the school weeks before her bloodied body was found in Table Mountain Road, near Bishopstowe. She was found hacked to death, her body hanging out of her car in a roadside ditch.
Weeks before her murder, Magwanyana had filed a case of intimidation with the police after graffiti, calling for her resignation, and an image of a gun, were spray-painted on the walls of her office.
A week after the murder, the principal of the Imbilane High School in Ulundi, Bongani Zulu, was shot dead in his home. His cellphone and wallet were found in the same room as his body and nothing appeared to have been taken from his house.
Police have yet to arrest any suspects in connection with that murder and motives are still being investigated.
Meanwhile, Nomarashiya Caluza, KwaZulu-Natal secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union said the union was “very concerned about the killings”, but added that they could not conclude that the murders of teachers in the province were over promotions.
She said it was the societal issue of violence in schools that needed to be addressed.
“Government needs to take steps to stop violence in education. It is much more than just people killing over promotion posts. The culture of violence needs to be stopped.”
Daily News