A criminal case against a couple charged with the murders of two Soweto boys has been moved to November for the director of public prosecutions to decide on the venue for trial.
Nqobile Ndlovu, 50, and her partner Mthunzi Zulu, 39, made their sixth appearance at the Protea magistrate’s court on Tuesday.
The pair faces two counts of murder related to the brutal killings of five-year-old Nqobizitha Zulu and six-year-old Tshiamo Rabanye.
They are also charged with kidnapping, perjury and defeating the ends of justice. They remain in custody at Sun City prison in Johannesburg until their next court appearance.
Accused is deceased grandmother
Ndlovu is Tshiamo’s grandmother while Zulu is not related to Nqobizitha.
During their court appearance on Tuesday, magistrate David Mhango postponed the matter to November 28 for the Gauteng director of public prosecutions to make a decision on whether the trial will sit at a regional or high court.
Unlike in previous court sittings, the deceased boys’ families and community members were nowhere to be seen, probably because of cold and rainy weather conditions.
The accused abandoned their formal bail applications in May.
During their first court appearance on April 28, Zulu said he had no previous convictions or pending cases, while Ndlovu told the court that she was convicted of assault when she was 19 years old.
She said at the time that she received a suspended sentence, adding that she had no pending cases.
Ndlovu and Zulu were arrested on April 25 following a forensic investigation at the boys’ homes. They abandoned their formal bail applications in May.
NPA denies existence of a confession
Two weeks ago, Sunday World reported that Ndlovu made a confession to police on how she killed the boys with a knife.
A police source close to the case said Ndlovu made the confession on April 26, a day after the couple’s arrest.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has since denied any existence of a confession.
The bodies of the two children were found mutilated on April 20, one in White City and the other a short distance away in Rockville.
They were last seen playing outside Tshiamo’s home, less than 100m away from Nqobizitha’s home.
At the time of their murders, they were pupils at Isiseko Primary School in White City.
A joint funeral service was held for Tshiamo and Nqobizitha at the Jabavu Stadium in Soweto in April before their burial at Olifantsvlei Cemetery, south of Johannesburg.
