Love triangle led to girl's fiery death

Boitumelo Dlamini was allegedly abducted from the Eletsa Secondary School in Lethlabile on June 18 last year. She was allegedly forced into a waiting car and taken some distance out of town, and then petrol was poured over her.

Boitumelo Dlamini was allegedly abducted from the Eletsa Secondary School in Lethlabile on June 18 last year. She was allegedly forced into a waiting car and taken some distance out of town, and then petrol was poured over her.

Published Oct 21, 2016

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Pretoria - A love triangle allegedly led to the horrific death of a Grade 12 pupil who was doused in petrol by a girl who saw her as a rival.

Boitumelo Dlamini suffered 70% burns to her body and died in a veld outside Lethlabile in the North West province.

One of the accused, 23-year-old Cynthia Mosupi, on Thursday pleaded not guilty in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to murder and kidnapping. Mosupi said she and her friend Sharon Gugu Twala, 24, simply wanted to scare Dlamini off so that she would stop her affair with her boyfriend. She explained that they poured petrol over Dlamini in a bid to teach her a lesson, but someone in the vicinity lit a cigarette and she went up in flames.

“We just wanted to frighten her into not seeing my boyfriend. We did not want to hurt her,” she said in a written plea explanation.

Twala will only plead on Friday on a charge of murder and kidnapping. She cried bitterly during court proceedings.

Mosupi, on the other hand, smiled from time to time. She wore a T-shirt with the words “Goodbye haters” on the back.

The letters faced a courtroom packed with relatives of the victim and a group from the ANC’s Young Women’s Desk from Ward 9 in Lethlabile which is north west of the capital city. One member, Kgomoko Malebati, said they were at court to see justice was done.

Her friend, Sinah Molekoa, said Dlamini was a lovely young woman. “Her death was a big shock to us,” she told the Pretoria News.

Dlamini was allegedly abducted from the Eletsa Secondary School in Lethlabile on June 18 last year shortly after she wrote a test. She was allegedly forced into a waiting car and taken some distance out of town, and then petrol was poured over her.

Mosupi said in her explanation that she and her boyfriend had been in a relationship for some time, but they decided to take a break as they were fighting a lot.

She made it clear that they were not allowed to see other people as they had not broken up.

But she heard from other people that her boyfriend and Dlamini were having an affair and she confronted him about it.

He denied this and she went to the home of Dlamini and spoke to her parents. Mosupi said they also complained about her behaviour.

A relative of her boyfriend confirmed the affair, she said. While they were talking on the phone, the relative said the pair were in the bedroom.

Mosupi said she decided to teach the woman a lesson so that she would leave her boyfriend alone.

She and her co-accused went to buy petrol and waited for Dlamini at the gates of the school.

She explained that they smoked a zol (dagga) while waiting and when Dlamini walked out the gate, they grabbed her by the arm and took her to a waiting car with some of their friends.

They drove a distance and got out of the car. She said her friend tried to tie the victim to a tree with her belt, but did not succeed. “I held her and Gugu poured the petrol on her.”

According to Mosupi, someone in the group wanted a cigarette. “After a few minutes I just saw flames.”

She said she did not know who lit the cigarette, but she saw that Dlamini was burning. She begged one of her friends to assist the woman, but they drove off.

She claimed she was also burnt by the flames and went to hospital where she was arrested. “She was not killed intentionally,” Mosupi said.

The trial continues.

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Pretoria News

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