A 12-year-old minor has confessed to killing the five-year-old preschooler from Mphini area in May.
The minor, whose name is deliberately withheld due to ethical reasons, made a daring confession during a preliminary hearing at the Manzini Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
However, there are contradictory statements between the police, social workers’ reports and the minor’s version regarding the manner in which the murder occurred.
According to statements recorded and submitted before court, the minor alleged that he was requested by a certain woman, who is a resident of the area to accompany the deceased, Bandile Kwaniko, and to make sure that he arrived home safely.
This, he alleged, came after Kwaniko had confided in the woman that he had earlier on been chased by a knife-wielding man along a footbridge linking Gebeni and Ngonini whilst headed home on his way back from the said preschool, however, he was able to outrun him.
The minor alleged that upon reaching the footbridge, together with the late preschooler, they decided to play a game of pelting stones at each other.
He said while they were playing the game, he took a bigger stone and accidentally hit Kwaniko with it in the head and he fell down.
According to the minor, after Kwaniko had fallen, he left him lying motionlessly on the ground, with the assumption that he would wake up a few minutes later and proceeded to his home.
The 12-year-old claimed he did not intend to kill Kwaniko. He alleged that the reason he left him lying motionlessly on the ground was because he had never seen a dead person before, thus did not know how a deceased looked like.
However, contrary to what the minor alleged to events leading to Kwaniko’s death, the social worker and the police reports suggested that the preschooler was strangled to death and was found in an abandoned house while half-naked, with signs of being sexually violated before being killed, whereas the accused maintained that he left him at the footbridge after the stone incident.
The accused minor denied ever sexually assaulting him.
The reports further stated that there was a trail of blood in the room in which Kwaniko’s corpse was found, suggesting that he was killed somewhere, then dragged on the ground and taken to the house, where he was eventually found, something the minor disputed as he claimed that he left him unconscious at the footbridge.
The reports added that there was a knot was found tied on the window of the house, where Kwaniko was found dead, suggesting that the killer was trying to conceal evidence as he wanted to hang him on the rope, so that his death could look like suicide.
The police’s theory is that if Kwaniko was killed by an older person, he would have tied the rope on the rafters as opposed to the window; hence they were convinced that the accused was the one trying to conceal the evidence, given his height.
The accused is expected to attend another preliminary hearing today.
Meanwhile, the lifeless body of Kwaniko was discovered at an abandoned homestead on May 26.
He was found lying face down on top of a lihiya while half naked. Next to him was a knife and a baton.
Eswatini Observer Press Reader
