South Africa’s youngest female killer is about to become a mother.
The Pietermaritzburg woman, now 21, was found guilty of murdering businesswoman Radha Govender, 59, on September 14, 2002.
Govender was stabbed to death while lying in a drugged sleep in her home in Bombay Road, Northdale.
Only 12 when the murder was committed, and 14 when she was found guilty, made her the country’s youngest female killer. Prior to that the title belonged to Marlene Lehnberg, the so-called “scissors” murderess, who went on trial aged 19, in 1976.
Now a free woman after serving her house-arrest and correctional supervision sentence, the attractive woman is in the advanced stages of her first pregnancy and is living a normal life with her partner, the son of a well-known Pietermaritzburg taxi owner.
Free since June 17, 2007, the young woman, who still lives in the provincial capital, says she has a clear conscience.
“I’ve paid for what I have done. I know deep in my heart that I have done my best to pay for my wrongdoing. All I want is for people to leave me to live my own life,” said the woman.
Anxious about giving birth for the first time, she said she didn’t want to get into “that episode of my life”.
“I’ve tried to put it behind me. I was young and am a lot more mature now. I deserve a second chance, like everyone else. At the end of it all, my child must not be haunted by what I have done. The baby deserves a fair chance in life,” she said.
The slain woman’s family, however, remain bitter.
Govender’s son, Dr I S “Diego” Pillay, said justice was never served.
“We have no contact with her and neither do we wish to. Her being pregnant is news to us. My mum’s death and her role in it is a very painful chapter in our lives.
“At the end of it all, this was my brother’s daughter who organised my mother’s murder. All we want to do is put it behind us,” said Pillay.
“We mourned the loss of our mother - yet this girl was free to get on with her life. That’s not justice,” said Pillay.
Another relative, who did not wish to be named, said she was still bitter.
“This child felt no remorse. Now she is going to be a mother. I wonder what she is going to teach her children? If you don’t like how your grandmother disciplines you, then you must arrange for her to be killed?” said the relative.
Dogged by controversy, she made headlines after her sentencing - first for apparently not adhering to her sentence conditions.
Then her stepfather got an interdict against her boy-friend, who had allegedly threatened him.
At the time there were constant rumours that the girl had been seen out, despite being under house arrest.
Criticised as having been let off the hook relatively easily - she served a 36-month house arrest sentence that ran concurrently with a seven-year suspended sentence - the girl had to participate in community service, as well as be regularly visited by Correctional Services.
She was allowed to complete her schooling.
In finding her guilty, the court had accepted evidence that the grandmother had been strangled and stabbed by Sipho Hadebe and Vusumuzi Tshabalala in September 2002.
The girl had approached them on the street and asked them to kill Govender in return for jewellery and goods from Govender’s house.
Hadebe and Tshabalala are serving jail sentences of 25 years. They testified for the state against the girl. Judge Kevin Swain in finding her guilty and sentencing her considered several factors as to why the girl had wanted her grandmother killed.
These included Govender praying in front of a lamp for the girl’s mother to die; threatening to scar her face so she would not leave her house; fighting with her about her high phone bills; saying her mother paid her too little for her upkeep; berating her mother, and criticising the girl’s clothing.
The judge had found that she had planned and executed Govender’s murder herself. - Tribune