Caregivers charged with 5-year-old girl’s murder
CASE: Rhodeshia Kampher and Sostenes Manyama appeared at Western Cape High Court
Questions have been raised over how a murdered five-year-old child came into the care of two people not related to her and who now stand accused of her murder.
Rhodeshia Kampher and Sostenes Manyama have been charged with the murder of little Linathi Solontyi.
The two appeared in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, where the matter was postponed to April 25 as the State tries to secure a Swahili interpreter to translate for Manyama, who is originally from Tanzania.
The pair are facing charges of murder and child neglect or abuse with the State proposing a minimum sentence of 15 years imprisonment if found guilty.
According to the State, Linathi stayed with her grandmother in Khayelitsha before she was placed in the pair’s care and intends to call her as a witness to explain how this happened.
The two accused were in a relationship and stayed in Mfuleni when the little girl started living with them in July 2019, reports the Cape Argus.
It is alleged that the biological mother gave written consent for her to be in Manyama’s care but a DNA paternity test proved he was not her biological father.
The child stayed with them up until the day she was admitted to hospital on 21 September 2019.
It was reported that she was with Kampher when she apparently fell from the stairs and was injured.
She was later taken to Eerste River Day Hospital where doctors found several injuries and scars on her tiny body.
She was then transferred to Red Cross Hospital where she remained until her death on 16 October 2019.
A post-mortem exam confirmed the cause of death to be head injury and its consequences.