How 5-year-old Linathi Solontyi was placed in the care of two people not related to her will be canvassed at the next court appearance of Rhodeshia Kampher and Sostenes Manyama, who are charged with her murder.
The two appeared in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, where the matter was postponed to April 25 as the State tries to secure a Swahili interpreter to translate for Manyama, who is originally from Tanzania.
The pair are facing charges of murder and child neglect or abuse with the State proposing a minimum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment if found guilty.
For the charge of murder, the State alleged that they may have inflicted violence on the girl, which included blunt force trauma or sharp force.
The State argues that the 5-year-old stayed with her grandmother in Khayelitsha before she was placed in the pair’s care and intends to call her as a witness to explain how this happened.
The two accused were in a relationship and stayed in Mfuleni when the girl started living with them in July 2019. It is alleged that the biological mother gave written consent for her to be in Manyama’s care but a DNA paternity test excluded him as the father.
The girl stayed with them up until the day she was admitted to the hospital on September 21, 2019. It was reported that she was with Kampher when she fell from the stairs and was injured.
She was later taken to Eerste River Day Hospital.
When the girl underwent a medical examination, several injuries were found on her body. Due to the extent of the injuries, she was transferred to Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital where she remained until her death on October 16, 2019.
The scars and injuries on her body caused alarm and resulted in the arrest of the accused. The post-mortem exam confirmed the cause of death to be head injury and its consequences.
-Cape Argus
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