The Western Cape High Court on Monday sentenced 34-year-old child killer Bongani Dlamini to life behind bars.
Judge Ashley Binns-Ward said the murder of five-year-old Anovuyo Ndamase on March 1, 2015, had resulted “not only in the tragic loss of a promising young life, but also in the devastation of the lives of her parents”.
He said the parents had clearly not been able to come to terms with the loss of their little girl.
“In a very real sense they are experiencing a living death, and are just as much victims of his crime as was Anovuyo.”
In September, Judge Binns-Ward convicted Dlamini of murder, but acquitted him on charges of rape and kidnapping.
He described him as a “poor and unconvincing witness”, but said he could not convict him on the kidnapping charge as the difficulty was “one has no idea whatsoever how the child came to be in the accused’s house”.
On the rape charge, he said there was “no direct evidence that the accused sexually penetrated the deceased” but the fact that the accused’s semen was found on his duvet inner and on a pillow cover also stained with the child’s blood “certainly gives cause for suspicion”.
Anovuyo went missing in Khayelitsha on Sunday March 1, 2015. Her mother, Kholeka Ndamase, realised she was no longer playing just outside her home when she emerged from her house after an hour-long meeting.
The little girl’s shoes were lying outside, but there was no sign of Anovuyo herself.
The community immediately started searching for the child and the case was reported to police who also became involved in the search later that evening.
The search continued until March 5 when the child’s naked body was discovered stuffed in a bag, along with her clothes, behind the house of a man who lived about three houses away from the accused.
The court found that the child had been assaulted with a blow to the head with a hammer, shattering her skull.
The Judge described Dlamini’s behaviour after the crime as “calculated and cynical”. He “even participated in a search for her after her mother had raised the alarm about the young girl’s disappearance”.
“The manner in which the body was elaborately concealed within a series of interleaved plastic and canvas bags and stored for days before being put out on the day that the local authority collected domestic refuse from the area afforded further indication of the accused’s callousness about what he had done and of his utter disrespect for his victim’s humanity”.
Dlamini had continued going to work and visiting his girlfriend as if nothing had happened.
In sentencing Dlamini, the Judge also pointed to his lack of remorse, his denial about what had happened, and his refusal to disclose the details, “adding to the parent’s torture”.
He said murder is the most serious offence, but when a child is the victim it adds a “special heinousness” reflected in the severity of sentences imposed by the courts in such cases.
Dlamini had, however, not shown “a shred of remorse”.
He had murdered a 5-year-old girl who “had a delightful nature and brought much joy into the lives of her parents. The photographs of her that her mother tendered in evidence show a pretty and happy looking child”.
Judge Binns-Ward cited several other cases including one of a 27-year-old man who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a three-year-old boy.
In that case, the victim had also been playing just outside his home.
In that judgement, the Judge said children were entitled to play in the streets, “especially just in front of their parental home”. They are entitled to enjoy their youth “without the fear, the apprehension and the insecurity which constantly diminishes the quality of their lives”.
Dlamini’s application for leave to appeal both his conviction and sentence was denied.
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