Durban - A 14-year-old’s honest testimony on how he saw a friend’s father force a liquid down his mother’s throat, pour it over her and set her alight, led to the uMlazi man’s conviction and a 15-year jail sentence for the murder.
The 48-year-old mother died in hospital of her burns and bronchial pneumonia, which she developed as a result of an infection caused by smoke inhalation.
She was set alight in her home on February 9 because uMlazi residents believed she was practising witchcraft. At a community meeting that day, she had apparently admitted to shaving off a 3-year-old boy’s eyebrows.
The small child’s father, Mzuyanda Mntambo, 30, had pleaded not guilty last month, in the Durban High Court, to the woman’s murder.
The woman’s son, 13 at the time, had testified from a separate room against Mntambo who had elected not to testify.
During Judge Sharmaine Balton’s recent judgment, she said the court could safely accept the teenager’s evidence as being truthful over a different version by another State witness.
“(Her son) testified without hesitation and it was clear to the court that he was not fabricating his evidence. He testified on what he observed,” her judgment read.
The youngster said the 3-year-old’s mother and Mntambo’s girlfriend, Slindile Dlomo, had come to his home and told his mother to accompany them. He had followed and unsuccessfully tried to find out from friends what was happening.
Dlomo had testified to confronting the woman about shaving off her son’s eyebrows in January, which she denied.
Dlomo said she reported the matter to a committee leader who suggested a meeting and she was requested to fetch the woman.
Dlomo’s cousin, Lethukuthula Dlulisa, also testified for the State and said Dlomo’s and Mntambo’s son was still alive today despite the witchcraft suspicions.
He had attended the meeting and was among the people who followed the woman to her home when the community decided she must leave the area because she was a danger to the children there.
When he arrived at her house, he had testified that people had surrounded it and were throwing stones, and said he pushed his way inside to find the woman hitting Mntambo with a hammer.
Dlulisa said he took the woman’s suitcase outside and returned inside to find everything on fire, including the woman. He said he tried to help the woman, but failed.
However, the teen testified to seeing Dlulisa hold his mother’s hands behind her back while Mntambo poured liquid over her. He also saw Dlulisa and Mntambo force his mother to drink this liquid and said Mntambo set her alight.
He saw this from the door of the house: his mother’s chest, abdominal area and lower back were on fire. He was afraid and ran away.
“He was the only family member to witness the event,” said Balton.
He had vehemently disputed that his mother carried a hammer.
He said someone had entered their house with it and had assaulted her. It was him and not Dlulisa, he said, who took out the suitcase and also said it was only his mother on fire and not everything in the house.
The boy told the court he did not hear the community ask his mother about the eyebrows and neither did he hear her make any admissions.
Balton said the youngster was adamant he was telling the truth and said he did not see Mntambo at the meeting, only at his house.
“He did not exaggerate. He was not afraid to testify and gave his evidence without hesitation and in a clear manner,” she ruled.
Mntambo was granted leave to appeal his conviction and sentence.
Daily News