SA man kills Zim couple's daughter with boiling porridge

JAMES Sithole couldn't pay a neighbour R20, so his little girl paid with her life. Nyaradzo Sithole (2) died after she was burnt with boiling porridge, allegedly by the neighbour.

This is the second death to hit the family in a year. Last year, Nyaradzo's twin sister died. James (26), of Kya Sands Pipeline squatter camp, north of Joburg, told Daily Sun that he was supposed to sell a building trowel for his neighbour for R20, as James knows builders.

"I gave it to a guy, but this guy went to work far away and he's still not back. So I planned to pay my neighbour with my own money."

But James didn't get a piece job he was expecting, so last Tuesday, he couldn't pay the neighbour as promised.

"We were sitting in front of a charcoal fire and my girlfriend was cooking porridge when the neighbour came. I told him I didn't have the money. He didn't seem to understand. He kicked the fire and the porridge burnt my daughter on the neck, leg and foot. He also beat me up," he said.

Nyaradzo's mother, Sharon Ndhlovu (24), said an ambulance took her daughter to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

"On Thursday, the hospital told us our daughter had died. My daughter was a such a clever little girl. When her twin sister died last year, we couldn't bury her as we had no money. I don't even know where she was buried as she had a pauper's burial," said Sharon.

Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale said: "The suspect is known, but still at large. We're investigating a case of murder."

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