Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Murder and rape accused appears in court
THE father of 4-year-old rape and murder victim, Iyapha Yamile, said he would like to hear from his daughter’s alleged killer about “why he did what he did to my baby”.
Odwa Nkololo made a brief appearance at the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court yesterday, following his arrest on Wednesday evening.
Nkololo told the court he would be applying for legal aid.
Civil society organisation, the Social Justice Coalition, has welcomed the arrest of the 29-year-old, who allegedly handed himself to the police in connection with the rape and murder of the little girl in May.
Residents were urged not to take the law into their own hands.
Iyapha’s father, Danile Ngongoshe, said the family remained distraught over the death of his child.
“The pain is still very strong and I just hope that justice is served for my little girl. I hope proper processes are followed and the law takes its course with the person that was arrested and he is sentenced accordingly. I would also like to hear from him why he did what he did to my child,” Ngongoshe told Weekend Argus.
Iyapha’s body was found stuffed in a plastic bag in Zone 14 in Town-Two, Khayelitsha, just metres from where 19-yearold Sinoxolo Mafevuka’s half- naked body had been discovered in a broken communal toilet, in March last year.
One of the four men initially arrested in connection with Iyapha’s murder was the father of the friend she was playing with at the time of her disappearance.
According to her father, they only realised she was missing when the other girls had returned home and Iyapha hadn’t. Three shacks where the four suspects – aged between 20 and 30 – lived were set alight and destroyed after angry residents went on the rampage when community members discovered Iyapha’s badly mutilated body.
Two of the four suspects who were originally arrested for the little girl’s death were released last month following inconclusive DNA evidence.
The case is due to return to court on Wednesday.