LERATO MNGUNI’S 20-month-old baby died last Friday of strangulation and suffocation. The nanny has been arrested.
Lerato wants to look the woman in the eye and ask for answers.
SHE WANTS TO ASK HER WHY HER CHILD IS DEAD!
The nanny (39), a Lesotho national, has been charged with Langelihle’s murder.
Lerato, the 28-year-old mum from Daveyton in Ekurhuleni, told Daily Sun her nanny had been looking after the child since he was just two months old.
“We’ve never had an argument,” said Lerato.
She told Daily Sun the nanny claimed on Friday that there was a break-in and the child had been kidnapped.
But after a frantic two-hour search for Langelihle, his lifeless body was found in the storeroom at the house.
Lerato said when she came home from work on Friday, she and her aunt found the burglar gate locked and the key to it on the floor, inside. When they went inside they heard praying.
“We found the nanny in her bedroom in the house with cuts on her arms. Her top was off and there was white insect powder everywhere on the floor,” said Lerato.
“She told us there had been a break-in and they were attacked. She said the people who broke in had taken the baby.”
When asked, the nanny said she had seen the faces of the burglars and recognised the voice of their neighbour.
But the child’s father, Sihle Shabalala (40), wasn’t convinced. Nothing had been stolen. He phoned the neighbours, who said they were not around.
“We suspected she could have been behind the disappearance of the child because there was no sign of forced entry and nothing had been taken,” said Lerato.
“We called paramedics, who asked us to clean the nanny before they could take her to hospital.”
Her aunt went to the storeroom to get a washtub and made a shocking discovery.
She found the child lying on the floor, a bandage tied across his mouth and head and covered with a blanket.
Sihle said they went through the nanny’s phone. She had sent messages to someone in Lesotho, possibly her sister.
In one of the messages, she said her heart was dripping blood.
“It’s better that I die, too. I can’t be blackmailed,” she said in the message.
Sihle said they phoned the sister, who said her sister had told her since February that she had been hurting.
Sihle confirmed to Daily Sun post mortem results indicated the cause of death was strangulation and suffocation.
Brigadier Mathapelo Peters said: “A woman is expected to make a second appearance in court on 28 October following the death of a 20-month-old toddler. The woman appeared in the Benoni Magistrates Court on Monday after a preliminary investigation linked her to the death of the child.”
Peters said the woman had told police that robbers had come into the house and forced her and the child to take poison.
“The child was found dead while the woman was rushed to hospital. When police conducted the investigation surrounding the death of the child, the woman was found to be a possible suspect,” said Peters.
NPA spokeswoman Phindi Mjonondwane said the case was postponed to 28 October for profiling and legal aid.
