Soshanguve couple sentenced for a crime against their 1 year old baby

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A lie portrayed by a young couple aged 20 and 25 to both the court, police and community about the death of their 1 year old daughter unfortunately caught up with them.

Lumka Mahanajana from the NPA has confirmed that Pretoria North Magistrates’ Court finally handed down a hefty sentence to the said couple from Soshanguve, 25 years old Joseph Molwana who is a Mozambican national, and the 20 years old Zanele Njobe.

The couple found themselves in front of the court of law following an incident that occurred on15 May 2022, where they said they were at Njobes place of residence, when they woke up in the morning only to realise that their 1-year-old daughter was not responsive.

Upon arrival of their neighbors after calling them, they realized that the child was dead. They then called Jobes family, community members and the police. On arrival the police arrested the couple on the scene.

They pleaded not guilty on their charges and claimed that they did not what happened to the child because they last heard crying and they did not know the reason. Seeing that she was quiet, they thought she stopped crying just to sleep.

However, forensic investigations and post-mortem proved them wrong after it was found that corpse had signs of trauma and/or abuse. Some of which being bite marks, bruises and broken ribs.

As a result of their actions, the community was outraged after finding out what had happened and the State prosecutor pleaded with court to not be lenient with them so that a message could be clear to everyone that such gruesome acts should not be allowed or tolerated in our society.

Molwana was sentenced to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of his 1-year-old daughter, Sphesihle Nonlanhla Njobe. Njobe, who was a minor at the time of the offence, was sentenced to 15 years’ direct imprisonment for the same offence, in terms of the Child Justice Act.

Both were further sentenced to five years’ direct imprisonment for child abuse. In addition, Molwana received a two-year direct imprisonment sentence for being in the country illegally.

The court ordered that all sentences for Molwana run concurrently with the life sentence. The court also declared both accused unfit to work with children and unfit to possess firearms.