Durban — Judge Poyo Dlwati handed 29-year-old Njabulo Ndlovu five life sentences in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday.
He pleaded guilty to killing grandmother Zanele Ndlela, 65, her daughter Simangele Ndlela, 46, and 8-year-old granddaughter Zenande Ndlela in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court last Tuesday.
In sentencing, Poyo Dlwati said Ndlovu, during the commission of the offence, showed no empathy and no mercy.
She also said the sentence was meant to deter other like-minded people, adding that the scourge of these types of offences was a concern.
“You stripped them, even at death, of their dignity, and most importantly, their right to life.”
Ndlovu alleged that he had arrived at the Ndlela home with friends. They all were drinking, and he and Simangele began flirting.
Ndlovu said he was then asked to sleep over by Simangele, and his friends left him behind.
“Smangele and I proceeded to the bedroom where we had consensual sex,” Ndlovu had explained at the time.
He said that Zanele then walked in demanding he leaves, to which Simangele told him to ignore her.
According to Ndlovu, Zanele returned with a kitchen knife, saying she would stab him if he did not leave.
They struggled for the knife, and they fell to the ground, and he strangled and stabbed her in the neck and on her temple above her eye.
Further, when Simangele woke to see her mother on the floor, dead, Ndlovu did the same to her, strangling her until she was foaming at the mouth.
“Zenande entered as I was trying to figure out what to do when she saw her gran on the floor and mom dead on the bed. She wanted to scream, but I covered her mouth. I strangled her and raped her vaginally and anally. I strangled her again.”
Daily News