NELSPRUIT – The mother of a six-year-old child who was brutally hacked to death to harvest her body parts for muti, testified in court. The accused, Ms Thabile Mnisi (29), Ms Stella Sibongile Mnisi (46) and Mr Sifiso Wonder Vilakazi (21), appeared before judge Mr Collin Lamot of the Circuit Pretoria High Court on charges of murder, kidnapping and the business proposition of selling children for their body parts.
They are accused of the murder of Dimaksu Shabangu.
Ms Goodness Mahlalela (33) stated in court that she had left her daughter with Thabile who was her neighbour, to go and harvest morogo. When she returned the accused said that she had gone out and when she came back the daughter and her own two children had left. Mahlalela stated that she then assumed the child had gone to her father.
The following day she and the accused went to the father’s house, only to find that her daughter had not been there. They then went to the elders. Mahlalela testified that when an elder asked Thabile about the child, she replied that she had not killed her.
The horrific crime had occurred on April 21, 2009 at Masibekela Trust in the Nkomazi subregion.
Police later found the body floating in a nearby river. The left hand had been severed, her tongue cut out and there was an incision from her navel to the end of her buttocks. The private parts had also been removed.
Lamot then started a trial within a trial as Vilakazi had stated he had been assaulted for his confession.
The next witness was Tonga Court Magistrate Ms Sibusiswe Sibuye who testified that she had taken Vilakazi’s testimony when he appeared in that court at that time, and that he had signed the document that stated he was giving his testimony of his own free will. Sibuye handed the document to Lamot.
The trial within a trial continues.
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Trial to begin of the illegal trade of child body parts
