Two Pretoria women convicted of burning a schoolgirl to death

Two young women were yesterday convicted in the High Court in Pretoria of kidnapping and murdering Letlhabile schoolgirl Boitumelo Dlamini by dousing the pleading girl with petrol and setting her alight.

Judge Tshifiwa Maumela convicted Cynthia Mosupi, 23, and her friend, Sharon Gugu Thwala, 24, on charges of kidnapping and murdering Dlamini in June 2015.

He found the women kidnapped Dlamini from Eletsa secondary school in Lethlabile, where she was a Grade 12 pupil, took her to the bushes near the Klipgat cemetery, doused her with petrol and set her alight.

They had planned long in advance to confront Dlamini about her suspected relationship with Mosupi’s ex-boyfriend.

The two claimed they only wanted to scare Dlamini by dousing her with petrol to frighten her into not seeing the man and that she was set alight accidentally when “someone” lit a cigarette nearby, but Judge Maumela rejected their version.

He accepted expert evidence that petrol needed a direct spark to catch fire. He found that Thwala had disguised herself by wearing a school uniform when she fetched Dlamini and took her to their car.

They then drove to the bushes and dragged her out of the car. They first tried to tie the terrified Dlamini to a tree with a belt, but when the belt broke, Thwala held onto her.

Mosupi poured petrol over her head. Dlamini managed to free herself but Mosupi chased and tripped her so that she fell down.

Thwala held her while Mosupi fetched matches from the car of a friend, who took a video of the incident, the court heard. The trial was postponed to October 4.