Durban — Family members could not contain their anger and emotions as they heard how 7-year-old Zenande “Mama” Ndlela was likely to have been alive when 29-year-old Njabulo Ndlovu raped her twice while her mom and grandmother lay dead.
“She tried to run but I managed to force her onto the floor. She fell on her back. I thereafter strangled her until she became still. Once she was still, I undressed her and inserted my p**** into her v*****. Thereafter I inserted my penis into her a*** … I strangled her again making certain she was dead.”
This was what Ndlovu said happened on June 27 in Sobantu where he killed Zenande’s mother, Simangele, and grandmother, Zanele Ndlela.
On Tuesday, in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, Ndlovu, a qualified flight attendant, pleaded guilty to the murders and Zenande’s rape.
He said that on June 26 he had arrived at the Ndlela home with his friends and they all consumed alcohol there with the Ndlela women.
He said he and Simangele began flirting and she told him he could sleep there when his friends left, which happened around 1am. After this he went to the bedroom with Simangele where they had consensual sex.
Njabulo Ndlovu has told the court that he killed 7-yr-old Zendande after she walked into the room to find her mom and gran dead. He has said he is remorseful and regrets his actions. He's charged with the murders of Zenande's gran, Zanele and mom Simangele. @DailyNewsSA pic.twitter.com/k9Y4hUMAbt
— Anelisa Kubheka (@AnelisaKubheka) July 12, 2022
According to Ndlovu, while naked under the covers with Simangele, who had fallen asleep, her mother walked in demanding that he leave or she would stab him.
Simangele was then woken up and told this by Ndlovu. She is said to have ignored Zanele.
“Zanele came back a third time and had a kitchen knife … I grabbed her hand … We struggled until we fell on the floor … I placed my knee on her neck and dispossessed her of the knife. I was so angry so I decided to kill her.”
He said he strangled her until she was foaming at the mouth, and stabbed her in the neck and above her eye.
Interpreter at PMB High court translates Njabulo's plea where he said that he stabbed Zanele in the neck and on the temple above her eye @DailyNewsSA #sobantutripplemursers pic.twitter.com/UMO5yXaX5c
— Anelisa Kubheka (@AnelisaKubheka) July 12, 2022
According to Ndlovu, when Simangele woke to see her mother dead and him wielding a knife, she tried to take it from him.
“I managed to push her onto my side and instead of running away I decided to kill her. I strangled her till she began foaming at the mouth and became still.”
Ndlovu said Zenande walked in while he was in the process of trying to figure out what to do.
As these details were read in English and translated into Zulu, a family member in the court auditorium got up wanting to lunge at Ndlovu in the dock.
As others grabbed him, holding him back, he broke loose and while walking out began shouting at Ndlovu.
“You want to listen to this s*** he did!”
In his plea Njabulo Ndlovu told the PMB High court how he strangled Zenande, raped her twice and strangled her again to make sure she was dead @DailyNewsSA #sobantutripplemurders pic.twitter.com/suKletyVmK
— Anelisa Kubheka (@AnelisaKubheka) July 12, 2022
With the court having accepted Ndlovu’s plea, sentencing proceedings got under way with mitigation of sentence, where it emerged from Ndlovu’s defence lawyer, Amanda Hulley, that Ndlovu’s father was a peacekeeper employed by the UN.
Ndlovu was employed as a promoter for an alcohol brand earning R5 000 a month even though he had a diploma as a flight attendant.
“I want to know if he still has a mother. He killed two women who were mothers, so it’s important to know if he has a mother,” probed Judge Poyo Dlwati, addressing Hulley.
The defence said Ndlovu’s mother had died in 2010 of tuberculosis and he had a 2-year-old daughter.
Hulley asked that the court in sentencing consider that Ndlovu had not fled after the commission of the offence, and that he co-operated with police and pleaded guilty.
When Hulley said the defence conceded to the seriousness and prevalence of this type of offence Judge Dlwati cut in to call it “horrendous”.
Senior state advocate C Kander said the extent of brutality in the offence portrayed Ndlovu as a violent man with no empathy and no mercy.
She said Zenande’s post-mortem report showed she had genital injuries. It was evident that there was bleeding: “A clear indication that she was alive when he was raping her. One only hopes she was not conscious …”
Dlwati asked that the State and defence prepare to address the court on aspects of non parole sentence and adjourned the case to next week.
Speaking outside court, relative Xolani Ndlela described Ndlovu as an animal, after having heard all those details in court.
“He must get the harshest sentence, it tore us to hear those details. He must die in prison. The person that found the bodies has not slept since, he can’t, we all can’t.”
Daily News