The Tembisa magistrate’s court has ordered that the 26-year-old woman arrested in connection to the murders of a school principal and the admin assistant not be identified because she has been receiving death threats.
The woman appeared in court on Friday following her arrest on Wednesday.
Her lawyer Octavious Magunda told the court that his client objected to being identified, citing safety concerns.
The threats were not just to her life but also to that of her family… We believe it’s not in the interest of justice to identify her.
— Octavious Magunda, lawyer representing murder accused
This followed a media application to capture the proceedings.
“My client, before arrest, was already receiving threat calls from unknown numbers. The threats were not just to her life only but to that of her family. We have also noted her images already circulating on social media, so we believe it’s not in the interest of justice to identify her as it puts her loved ones at risk, so we would object to her identity being shared,” Magunda said.
The magistrate ruled in favor of the accused saying she should not be identified but allowed for proceedings to be audio recorded only for that sitting.
She stated that should the media wish to cover the matter on Monday, they should put in another application.
Inxiweni Primary School principal Nozibele Thapu, 58, and admin assistant Nobantu Njomboni, 55, were shot on the school premises in Tembisa on Tuesday evening.
The woman was arrested on Wednesday, and her co-accused, a 35-year-old man, was arrested on Friday morning.
Prosecutor Maxwell Randima told the court the woman faces two counts of murder and likely charges of conspiracy may be added.
“The state is going to allege common purpose and that those counts were planned; therefore, the matter is enrolled under Schedule 6.”
Randima added that the matter will be rolled over to Monday to allow the woman’s co-accused to join her in the dock.
Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona, who was in attendance, told the media the department welcomes the arrest of the two suspects.
“We would like to appreciate the speed by the authorities in this matter and welcome the arrests that have been made so far, and hope all the accused will be brought to book.”
There have been allegations that the school feeding scheme food was recently stolen.
However, Mabona said the department will not be commenting on the matter as they have heard there are a lot of issues and rumours coming up.
“We don’t want to contaminate the police investigation, as it seems there is some relation from the said transactions, to stolen nutrition food, to security not functioning that day because generally all security measures work; the security guard is there, and CCTV cameras work.”
Sowetan reported that the double murder happened allegedly just after the principal had confronted the school’s accountant over missing funds.
Sowetan