Update

GEORGE NEWS - After slightly more than a year, the man found guilty of the kidnapping and brutal murder of Imange Jantjies (8) from Thembalethu in August 2021, was sentenced in the George Circuit High Court on Thursday 10 November.

Zipho Nqoko (24) was handed down a cumulative sentence of 30 years direct imprisonment on the two charges.

He was sentenced to five years behind bars on the charge of kidnapping and 25 years for the premeditated murder of the child.

The child's body was found in Nqoko's shack in Zone 7 on 19 August 2021 after Nqoko and the child's mother, Annelisiwe Jantjies, had a fight earlier that day and she threatened to leave him.

He kidnapped the child from where he was playing outside Jantjies' aunt's house and took him to his shack where he stabbed him to death.

During Jantjies' testimony the court heard there was a fight between the couple when Nqoko, who was working as a security guard, returned from working night shift. Jantjies and her son were at her aunt's house in Thembalethu when Nqoko arrived back from work and demanded that she accompany him to his shack. She declined as she was busy cleaning. He left but returned later that afternoon, again demanding that she go with him.

When she refused, he threatened her with a knife saying he would kill her mother or her son.

She then told the accused that she wanted to break up with him and he left.

A while later she realised that her son, who had been playing outside with friends, had disappeared. She started searching for him and testified that one of Imange's friends told her that he had left with Nqoko.

At about 18:30 that evening, Jantjies went to the Thembalethu police station to report her missing child when the accused arrived, with no child in sight. "I asked him where my child was and he said he killed my child," Jantjies said during her testimony.

Nqoko handed himself over to police and he was arrested. Imange's body was found locked up in his shack with a continental pillow covering his face. He had no less than 28 stab wounds to the one side of his neck.

Murder from pure rage

During his testimony on Monday morning, Nqoko told the court that he stabbed the child the first time when he and the child's mother's cousin, Shaun Jantjies, got into a fight in his shack in Zone 7. Jantjies however testified that he was never at Nqoko's shack in a fight or with the deceased. According to him, they barely even spoke to each other.

Nqoko testified that the child jumped up and told him not to stab Jantjies and he accidentally stabbed the child.

He said that Jantjies ran away while the child continued to hold on to his [Nqoko's] leg and he could not get the child off him.

This was when he stabbed the child repeatedly, allegedly taking out his anger for Jantjies on little Imange. The boy was barely taller than one metre.

He said he could not find Jantjies and returned to his shack, locked it and made his way to the police station. Nqoko could not explain why he stabbed the child so many times.

Murdered for revenge

During cross-examination, state prosecutor Adv Lenro Badenhorst put it to Nqoko that he murdered Imange out of spite after the child's mother threatened to leave him.

He put it to Nqoko that Imange only weighed 25kg and that he could have pushed him away or hit him in the face if he wanted the child to let go of his leg, but instead it was his direct intention to kill the child to get back at his mother.

Sentencing

During sentencing Judge Derek Wille said that sentencing should be balanced and many factors have to be taken into consideration.

He said he found enough substantial and compelling evidence to deviate from the minimum prescribed life sentence for the murder.

Among the factors, Wille said, were that Nqoko handed himself over to the police and showed remorse for his crimes.

He was a young first offender who came from a difficult socio-economic background without any proper role models, as he never knew his father and his mother died when he was 11 years old. He had also had limited schooling.

Wille said that he believed Nqoko can be rehabilitated.

Zipho Nqoko (24) after sentencing in the George Circuit High Court last week.
Photo: Kristy Kolberg