EASTERN CAPE. – Noluvuyo Sinyikatha (23) has been found guilty of the murder of Likuwe Mpokopi, a six-year-old girl, whom she drowned in a river near Ngcanasini, Mqanduli, on 28 August 2024. Sinyikatha murdered the child because she believed the girl's mother was responsible for the death of her own nine-month-old baby.
Luxolo Tyali, SAPS spokesperson, said the court heard the child's body was found in the river the same afternoon by women collecting firewood. A community member told police two days later that she had seen Sinyikatha walking to the river with the child shortly before the murder.
After her arrest, Sinyikatha admitted that she murdered the girl because she believed her own baby had been killed by the girl's mother. The two families had been living together at the Mpokopi homestead. The court accepted Sinyikatha's confession as admissible. Although no one witnessed the drowning itself, the court found that the state had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Sinyikatha will appear in court on 18 September for sentencing. The state will request an appropriate sentence.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
