WHITE RIVER – A 29-year-old parolee accused of brutally murdering a 40-year-old woman of the notorious Section D in Msholozi, briefly appeared in the White River Magistrate’s Court on January 20.
Mr Collen Hlungwane was arrested immediately after the incident which left the community reeling during the celebrations of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children last year.
On December 5 he allegedly raped and killed Ms Khonzi Sengwane in her home and took her body to a neighbour’s shack, about 30 metres away, where he left her naked in a bath of water with a hat on her head.
The body was discovered by the 51-year-old neighbour at about 07:00 after opening her shack. She alerted members of the community and police were called to the scene.
An axe and blood stains were found in the victim’s home.
According to Capt Gugu Phiri, post-mortem results revealed that she had died of head injuries. This newspaper discovered that Hlungwane was out on parole after serving three years of a seven-year jail sentence for attempted murder.
Hlungwane made his first court appearance on December 6, was remanded in custody and the matter was postponed to January 20. At the time of going to print, the outcome was unknown. He will appear again in the same Magistrate’s Court for bail application on January 27.
In a separate case a 27-year-old woman accused of attempting to kill her three-day-old baby boy in December, also appeared in the same court.
The case against Ms Promise Ntileni of Matsulu was postponed to February 7 for a social worker’s report to state if she was mentally fit to stand trial.
Ntileni allegedly tried to suffocate her baby by leaving him in a plastic bag and placing a box with a log on top of it near Metropolitan. A security guard who apparently saw her carrying the baby before dumping him, questioned her on the whereabouts of the child after seeing her walk away without him. Police were called to the scene. The baby was found alive and was rushed to hospital. Ntileni is apparently out on bail.
