Pretoria – Hundreds of #NotInMyName activists were picketing outside the Mamelodi Magistrate’s Court, where a 31-year-old man based in Mamelodi East was appearing on an attempted murder charge after he allegedly tried to kill an eight-year-old girl.
“We are here for the case of little Rea, an eight-year-old girl whose throat was slit by her mother’s boyfriend. The man had an argument with the mother, and he slit the child’s throat,” said #NotInMyName secretary general Themba Masango.
“Fortunately, the little girl did not die. She is in hospital, fighting for her life.”
The National Prosecuting Authority has previously stated that the 31-year-old, who allegedly slit the little girl’s throat, was in a romantic relationship with the mother of the child.
“It is alleged that on April 24, 2022, the couple had gone to a funeral, where an argument broke out between them. The following day, while the mother of the minor had gone to a nearby car wash, the accused went to a house where she stayed to try to work things out,” said North Gauteng regional spokesperson for the director of public prosecutions, Lumka Mahanjana.
When he arrived, he allegedly found the minor with her grandmother.
“It is alleged that the accused used a butcher knife he found in the kitchen. The mother of the victim heard the screams of her mother and quickly rushed home, then took her injured child and rushed her to a nearby hospital,” said Mahanjana.
Masango said the other case before the Mamelodi court on Monday pertains to the murder of six-year-old Olwethu Zwane, who was brutally stabbed to death in October last year in Mamelodi.
“If bail is granted, we are saying that we cannot guarantee their safety,” Masango told IOL.
IOL