Teenager centre of drama
CHIC-LOOKING teenage mother Mbali Magwala was the focus in the Durban High Court at the trial of the gruesome murder of Desiree Murugan, who was decapitated before her head was presented to a sangoma in 2014.
Yesterday Magwala was in the dock with teenagers Thuso Thelejane, Mlungisi Ndlovu and 32-yearold sangoma Sbonakaliso Mbili.
All were found guilty of killing Murugan and are awaiting sentencing.
A fifth accused, Falakhe Khumalo, confessed and is serving a life sentence. A sixth accused, Vusumuzi Jabulani Gumede, was acquitted of being an accessory to the murder this year, after he served two-and-a-half years in prison.
Judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati ordered that a psychologist’s report be compiled on Magwala after her lawyer, Rema Mahabeer, grilled probation officer Mahoshni Naidoo over her pre-sentencing report that recommended all four receive jail terms.
“Your report is completely opinionated and biased,” Mahabeer put it to Naidoo, pointing out that it was possible for murderers to get correctional supervision and that Magwala, now 19, had been a minor when Murugan was murdered.
“She was a child offender with a child.”
The court heard that Murugan, who was a prostitute, aged 37, had been lured to the Shallcross sports grounds for sex, stabbed 195 times and decapitated. Municipal workers found her body.
The lawyer told Naidoo that her client was not at the murder scene, was not part of the sexual assault and was not a participant of the stabbing. “She was also not part of the beheading of the victim and not part of the conveyance of the head to the relevant parties.”
Naidoo responded that Magwala had assisted in luring a number of potential victims for her co-accused.
Mahabeer stressed that Magwala had participated in the crime under duress, but Naidoo said she acted out of fear but also for financial gain.
The two also disagreed on Magwala’s behaviour profile.
Naidoo said Magwala was sent to stay at various homes because of her deviant behaviour after her mother’s death. Her grandmother had then fostered her. Mahabeer’s version was that Magwala had been moved between Bizana in the Eastern Cape, Harding and Durban for educational and financial reasons.
Mahabeer said once she had a child she displayed responsibility, creating her own home for herself and her infant in an informal settlement and was working as a cleaner.