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Ms Hlulani Maswanganyi.

Trial date for Masingita Chavani

 

Community members from Malamulele, who arrived in many taxis, sang and danced outside the Limpopo High Court in Thohoyandou on Tuesday. The crowd sang anti-Masingita songs while beating drums and toy-toying outside the court in support of Ms Hlulani Maswanganyi 's family.

This was during the appearance of former Malamulele traffic officer Masingita Chavani (47). She stands accused of kidnap and murder, following the disappearance of 17-year-old Hlulani Maswanganyi and her one-month-old baby Timothy Mbavala. The incident took place in October 2015.

The baby was later found alive, but the mother has not been found since.

After many postponements, Chavani's co-accused, Steven Sithole, confessed to the murder and was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment by the High Court last week. He has since turned state witness.

The residents, who had hoped the trial would continue, were disappointed as the trial was postponed once more and is set to start on 14 August.  A new judge will preside over Chavani’s case as the one who sentenced Sithole could not continue with her case.

Outside court, family spokesman Wilson Mahlawule said he was disappointed but at the same hopeful that the postponement would give the accused time to think and tell the police where she had dumped the body.

"We are in severe pain, not knowing where our loved one is. We have accepted the fact that she is dead and we welcome the confession by Sithole. What we need is Hlulani's body, so that we can give her a decent funeral and that her child will know where her grave is," he said.

Ms Basani Msimeki, who represented the community, said they were very disappointed by the turn of events. "We came here in numbers to show support to the family of Hlulani. We are also here to give a message to the judge not to give her bail and to give her a life sentence.”

According to Msimeki, the accused must be in prison "and not live with people. She is a danger to society." 

The whole drama started in 2015 when Chavani allegedly booked maternity leave at work. What nobody knew was that she had allegedly faked the pregnancy. She had allegedly phoned the young Hlulani Maswanganyi (17), a relative with a month-old baby, and requested her to come to her home at Xikundu outside Malamulele. Nobody has seen Hlulani since then.

Beating the drums and singing anti-Masingita songs outside court are community members who had come to give support to the Maswanganyi family.

 

Date:24 June 2017

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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