The ManicaPost
It has been reported that a 13-years-old girl, Nelly Masangu lost her life after her aunt set her alight alleging she took her R500. From what we gathered, Nelly Masangu was rushed to a hospital but died a few days later from the third-degree burn wounds she sustained.
Her aunt, Anna Mahlangu was dragged to the Pretoria High Court where she faced a murder charge. Mahlangu pleaded not guilty to murder upholding she never planned to kill her niece. According to her, she only wanted to teach her a lesson for stealing her money. Stressing that she has been traumatised since her niece died, Mahlangu told the court that Nelly has been stealing her money; that her plan was to scare her from doing it again. “I decided to pour paraffin over her and to pretend that I was going to burn her.
I believed that she would never burn because I was going to put out the fire myself.” Mahlangu narrated that she tried to help Nelly when she caught fire.
“Unfortunately, she slipped out of my hands and ran away. As she ran further away, the flames became even more. I and other tenants poured water at her in an effort to put out the fire. The fire was eventually put out but unfortunately, she had suffered burns. I never intended to burn her as I loved her. I had high hopes for her to one day make something of herself,” Mahlangu cried.
Depot Without Any Weapon Reporting this, IOL related that Mahlangu’s employer testified that she has been working for his family for about 27 years and has never done anything similar to what she did to Nelly. Mahlangu’s employer suggested that the accused was increasingly finding it hard to cope with Nelly as she was a difficult kid. The case was postponed to December 8.
The judge asked for a probation officer’s report to assist the court in sentencing Mahlangu. — Buzz SA
