Lihle Zenzile’s parents have been waiting for more than nine months for the killer of their daughter to be sentenced as the plea negotiations continue to drag on. According to Action Society’s Kaylynn Palm, this case has been marred by excuses, negligence and other delay tactics. The case will be heard at the Paarl Regional Court on Friday, 17 November.
In October the case was postponed after a psychologist previously found the accused mentally fit to plea, but a missing psychological report refuted that statement. The defence admitted that the mistake was their own. The case has been postponed eight times since Action Society became involved in the matter.
The 10-year-old girl from Mbekwini in Paarl, was killed on 6 January this year by a close member of her family who was living in the same house as Lihle and her parents at the time of her murder. He stuffed her body inside of a trunk under her parents’ bed after he strangled her to death. The killer turned himself over to the police and showed them the trunk where they found her body.
“Children are being murdered in South Africa every day at a sickening rate, but our broken justice system and police are too slow to act and thus delay justice. These innocent children merely become another check mark on a statistics sheet that grows longer every day. Between April and June 2023, 293 children were murdered . That is 98 per month and three per day. It is a pandemic in South Africa and we must put a stop to it,” said Action Society’s Kaylynn Palm.
