Durban - The 39-year-old woman charged for the murder of 10-year-old, Siphumelele Mzimba, whose decomposing body was found in a bush abandoned her bail application in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
Zandile Nsele appeared briefly in court where the murder charge was added to the kidnapping and extortion charges she had faced at her previous court appearance on June 20.
This after Siphumelele disappeared from her home near Pinetown on June 13.
It is alleged that a year ago Nsele had rented a room from where Siphumelele and her family lived following which she moved five minutes away from her home.
The police allege that on the day of the teenager's disappearance Nsele had offered to do her hair. However, Nsele at the time claimed that the 13-year-old did not arrive at her house.
When she did not arrive home, a search was launched for her that comprised members of the community her parents and Nsele.
A day after her disappearance, Nsele allegedly fled to Gauteng but was apprehended two days later.
Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza along with other officials went to the home where Zandile Nsele was renting and inspected a hole that had been dug up. It is alleged that Nsele had planned to bury her alleged victim in it. Video Anelisa Kubheka.
Last Thursday her father, Mlungisi Nkala, along with police discovered Siphumelele's body which had parts missing from her head to her waist in a bush metres away from Nsele's home
Inside court, Magistrate Wendalynn Robinson told Nsele that she has since been charged with murder.
"The state alleges that on 4 July at Nazareth you (Nsele) unlawfully killed Siphumelele by strangling her to death with a cable tie on her neck," she said.
Her defence told the court that Nsele was abandoning her bail application.
On Sunday the child's father had told the Daily News that he wanted Nsele to be granted bail so the "community could deal with her".
Outside court on Tuesday, Nkala reiterated this.
"I still maintain that she should be released so we can deal with her," he said.
Siphumelele's parents Mlungisi Nkala and Nosipho Mzimba alongside supporters at the Pinetown Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. Picture: Anelisa Kubheka
Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza also attended the court case and outside court, she said the department would offer counselling to the family, which was still grappling with how to tell Siphumelele's seven-year-old brother what happened to her.
"Even the pupils at her school are traumatised by this," she said.
Later, the MEC along with other officials went to the home where Nsele was renting and inspected a hole that had been dug up. It is alleged that Nsele had planned to bury Siphumelele's body in it.
The matter continues on August 20.