Tavern owner Pontsho Mohlanka has been convicted for triple murder.

She was convicted for the murders of three children, namely Mzwandile Zitho, 5, in April 2020, and the double murders of Simphiwe Mgcina, 6, and Mpho Makondo, 8, in September 2020 – just five months apart.

Acting judge Lillian van Wyk handed down the court’s verdict. Moments later, she sat down and started weeping.

“You’re crying for nothing. You can’t be crying. We are the ones who should be crying because we are the ones who lost children,” yelled Mzwandile’s grandmother Nompumelelo Zitho as soon as Van Wyk left the packed courtroom.

Mzazi, oblivious to the commotion that erupted in court, sat quietly with tears rolling down his face.

There was a pile of dockets next to him. “I’ve been waiting for this moment. This is what I wanted,” Mzazi told a fellow investigator who offered him a handkerchief.

 

Mzazi further said the triple murder case drained him emotionally, adding that his children have the same names (Mzwandile and Simphiwe) as those that were killed by Mohlanka.

The deceased were all found naked with no visible wounds on their bodies. Mzwandile was found between a counter and fridge inside the tavern, while Simphiwe and Mpho’s bodies were found not too far from the tavern.

The court heard that postmortem reports revealed that the three children died from suffocation.

During cross-examination, Mohlanka told the court that the children were killed by a creature sourced by her boyfriend to grow their tavern profits. The boyfriend turned state witness and is under witness protection.

The court ruled that he should not be named.

But in her judgment, Van Wyk did not entertain allegations of a human blood-thirsty creature, saying she would not accept the version as it was not put to her lover in court.

Source: https://www.dailysun.co.za/dailysun/news/court-convicts-child-murderer-