Durban — Murder-accused Simphiwe Zulu, 33, accused of killing his year-old grandchild in a fit of rage, ripping out her intestines and draping them from the roof of a house, has been denied bail in the Nquthu Magistrate’s Court, about 50km east of Dundee, in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Zulu is accused of killing the toddler by ramming little Sinakhokonke Zulu’s head against a wall in front of the child’s horrified mother, 18-year-old grade-12 pupil, Anele Zulu.
Zulu arrived at court wearing torn clothes and looking bemused.
The infant’s mother told the Zulu-language Isolezwe newspaper that her father had arrived home on Tuesday evening with red eyes and a frightening look in them.
She said he had been looking for a fight.
“He usually leaves in the morning to smoke drugs with friends and comes back in the afternoon. Normally he arrives and fights with grandma and I, but on Tuesday it was worse – it seemed like he was crazy,” said Anele.
Trying to escape the tirade, she and her mother ran to another room with the child and called for help.
But when help arrived in the form of an ambulance followed by a police van, her father threw stones at the vehicles before kicking open the door of the room they were in and physically attacked them.
“He started by beating me, hurt ma in the head and snatched the baby away.
“He smashed her (the baby’s) head on the floor and on the wall.
“After that he took a pan and finished her off in front of us.
“We ran outside – the police were trying to get in. He smashed the light bulb and the house became dark.
“He was fighting whoever tried to get inside the house – he had turned into an animal,” she said.
A witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said more policemen arrived to help subdue the attacker, who, up to that point, had seemed immune to pepper spray and had refused to leave the house.
“I have never seen something like that,” the witness said.
“The time Zulu was leaving the house, the blood of the child was all over his mouth. It's like he had been drinking it.
“Her insides were laid on top of the roof.”
The witness, a neighbour, said that nearby was an old building, that housed toilets, in which drugs were smoked and that the community had repeatedly asked the municipality to demolish.
A source close to the police in Nquthu said Zulu had admitted cutting the child open and removing her insides with glass from a bottle.
The matter has been postponed to April 3.
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