Killer wants to buy victim’s family a goat
A former domestic worker from Wespark, Pretoria, was in tears as she asked the family of a rival domestic worker for forgiveness after she stabbed the woman 11 times with a kitchen knife.
Mabel Jabulile Manciya asked Pretoria High Court Judge Bert Bam to have mercy on her and not to send her to jail as she wanted to, according to a traditional ritual, give the family of her victim a goat to prove her remorse. The goat, she said, had to be a big one which would cost her about R1 500 and she would only have saved enough by April.
Manciya, 26, said she did not know how many times she stabbed Johanna Majozi, 38, on April 16, 2008, but she insisted that she had done it by herself.
She said her sister and a friend went with her that day, as she wanted to give her employers – the Mentzes – a sick note stating that she could not come to work as her child was ill, but they waited outside.
She had been away from work for some time as her grandfather had died and she had attended his funeral in Nelspruit.
Her employers in the meantime obtained the services of Majozi, who was helping out until Manciya could return to work. She said she had known Majozi since childhood and was surprised to find her at the Mentz home.
Manciya had been working for the Mentz couple since September 2006.
She said she left her sister and her friend at the gate and knocked on the door. Majozi, who opened the door, told her Mrs Mentz had already left for work. She asked for a contact number but Majozi said she did not have one.
Manciya said she walked into the house and went to the living room to try to find a number. “Majozi followed me and she shouted insults at me, such as that I am a witch because my grandmother is a traditional healer.”
She said the woman told her that she (Manciya) would never work for the Mentz family again.
She became extremely angry and wanted the deceased to stop. She went to the kitchen and took a knife out of the drawer. In a state of anger and rage she stabbed Majozi in the chest and on her neck.
Manciya said she could not recall how many times she had stabbed her and whether she had also strangled her, but when the woman fell to the ground she realised what she had done. According to the accused she decided to stage a robbery and bound Majozi’s hands and feet, before ransacking the house.
According to a probation officer, Majozi was sorry for what she had done. Judge Bam was told that Manciya was the only breadwinner in her family and had to care for seven children.
She is out on bail and working for a taxi association. She told the court her boss had no idea that she was facing a charge of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Taking the stand, Manciya broke down in tears as she asked the family of her victim for forgiveness.
“I humbly asked the court to give me a suspended sentence so that I can buy them a goat,” she said.
While she insisted she had acted alone, both the court and the State pointed out to her that two bloodstained knives were found on the crime scene.
A witness also testified how she saw Majozi running out of the house and how Manciya and another person stopped her at the gate and forcibly took her back into the house.
A doctor who conducted the post mortem also testified that Majozi’s arms and legs were bound together extremely tightly. Material was also wound so tightly around her neck that her neck appeared to be distorted.
The defence asked for a non-custodial sentence so that she could repay her victims by means of a goat, while the State called for a life sentence for what it called a “cold-blooded murder”.
Manciya will be sentenced today. - Pretoria News
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/ ... -1.1001582
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