Hope has returned to the family of a child from Q, Mlaza, who was brutally murdered in August last year, when they heard that the defendant, who was a neighbor at the time, is planning to plead guilty next week.
This was decided at the Durban High Court, when Ms. Sbongile Ngwadla (41) appeared for the murder of Simphiwe Xaba (5). There are three charges against the defendant. The first is the kidnapping of the deceased who is said to have committed it on August 22, 2025; the second was to demand R60 000 from the mother of the deceased to release him; the third is to kill the deceased.
Appearing yesterday in front of Judge Nompumelelo Radebe, it was revealed that he has changed his lawyer. Stating this, the State Prosecutor, Mr. Andile Makhanya, said he received confirmation on Tuesday that the defendant has changed his lawyer.
“I found out that the lawyer Mrs. Zeera Fareed is the one who will take over from Mr. Chiliza. She said that she needs to be given some time to talk with the accused. We have agreed that the case will be postponed to next Tuesday, when the accused may plead guilty,” said Makhanya. Mrs. Fareed stood up and told the court that everything the State said was true.
Mrs. Radebe adjourning the case said: “The case is postponed to July 28, this year. The accused has changed his lawyer, the case is postponed so that he can get enough time to talk with the new lawyer.” Outside the court, the mother of the deceased, Ms. Ntombifikile Xaba, said that they are happy to hear that the accused is planning to plead guilty.
“It’s going really well if he pleads guilty. That means that our trial at the court will come to an end,” said Ms. Xaba. He revealed that no matter how well he feels, every time the court date approaches, that changes.
“When the court date approaches, the wounds start to resurface and we are starting to get used to the fact that we lost a child,” he said.
He said he did not want the defendant to be given a life sentence with more years for the cruelty he showed to a young child. In the court documents it appears that the defendant planned to kill the deceased. When the incident happened, the defendant kidnapped the deceased, while his mother was at work. It turned out that it was just an incident, the defendant had a verbal argument with his mother, and it was suspected that he was just abducting the deceased, trying to inflict pain.
It turned out that the deceased did not kill him the day he kidnapped him as there were witnesses who told the police that he was seen changing places of residence while the child was alive. It turned out that at that time he was not keeping himself down, sending messages to the mother of the deceased demanding a sum of money. It turned out that he ended up killing the child by beating him and then threw his body into the river.
The police found us on August 28, 2025, we were starting to deteriorate, after they went to identify us.