Evil aunts get life for exorcism killing

 

The women who should have been protecting their 14-year-old niece, but who instead killed her, were on Friday called “instruments of evil” in the Durban High Court, where they were sentenced to life imprisonment.


The image of the educated and churchgoing women belied the evil intent which they displayed when they disembowelled the teenager via her private parts in an exorcism to remove what they thought was a “demon code” located in her intestines.
The women - Fundiswa Faku, 33, and Lindelwa Jalubane, 41, with Jalubane’s daughters, Nokubonga, who will turn 22 tomorrow, and Minenhle, 19 - stood in the dock of the Durban High Court on Friday, their faces covered by jersey hoods and scarves.

They were were on trial for the murder in March 2012 of Sinethemba Dlamini of uMlazi’s K section.
They were found guilty of murder late last year, and on Friday Faku and Jalubane were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Nokubonga and Minenhle were sentenced to 12 years in prison, of which one half is to be suspended for five years on condition they are not convicted of murder, culpable homicide or assault during that period.
Nokubonga and Minenhle were 18 and 15 years old respectively at the time of the killing.

The women believed that Dlamini was possessed by a demon and decided to disembowel her through her private parts to take out the demon code “44666” they believed was in her intestines.

They removed 8.8m of her bowel and her spleen through her vagina.
Dlamini died as a result of blood loss owing to the evisceration, or disembowelling, of her abdomino-pelvic viscera, as well as possible smothering.
Judge Philip Nkosi showed no mercy, directing his words at the four accused, whose heads were held low.

“She was forced to lie down on her abdomen and pinned face-down on the floor while her intestines and other vital organs were pulled out through her vagina.
“The horrific exorcism was performed under the pretext that you were removing a secret code of a demon from her abdomen. The evidence shows that all of you acted in common purpose to kill.”

In mitigation of sentence, pyshco-social reports from social workers were presented.
The reports stated that all four were first-time offenders in good physical and mental health. Other circumstances of their family life were also set out. They all attended the same church and were “devout Christians”.

Faku, who has a qualification in electrical engineering, cares for her extended family. She had to leave her job because she could not handle the pressure from her colleagues and the public after the killing.