A 60-year-old security guard has pleaded guilty to the murder of two KwaZulu-Natal grandmothers, one of whom was his boss.
Thokozani Patrick Mhlongo appeared in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday before Judge Nompumelelo Radebe.
Mhlongo was charged with the murder of Zanele Doris Mbuso, 61, and Moni Sophie Xulu, 81.
The women were killed on Women’s Day this year.
Mhlongo worked as a security guard at the eThembeni crèche at Umgababa, which was owned by Xulu since 2014.
He told the court that because he had no family or a job, she gave him a job and let him live on her property.
In his guilty plea handed to the court by legal aid attorney Amanda Hulley, Mhlongo said prior to the murder incident, he had shared his private family affairs with Xulu and warned her not to tell anyone.
Mhlongo said thereafter he heard people talking about his background, and that made him upset.
He believed it was Xulu who was gossiping about him.
On August 9, 2023, Mhlongo was at the crèche with the two women, and he decided to confront Xulu.
"She denied discussing his family affairs,” he told the court.
He said that in addition, Mbuso, who worked in the crèche kitchen, had accused him of stealing food from the kitchen.
Mhlongo said this infuriated him, and he decided to kill her and whoever else was witnessing it.
He said he armed himself with a nunchaku and strangled the two deceased to death.
He thereafter dug a shallow grave, buried them, and took their cellphones.
Mhlongo was arrested a week later.
The State was represented by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Mbongeni Mthembu, and sentencing is expected to take place later this month.
IOL News