SA: Spurned Black Boy kills teacher in front of Class

[Wild! Jan]

Schoolboy Mazwi Mkwanazi was only 15 when he approached a student teacher 10 years his senior and "proposed friendship".

She spurned his advances and their paths did not cross again until this year, when Nkulinga Ndala accused him of trying to cheat in an exam. Enraged at her attempts to "destroy his life", he stabbed her to death in front of his fellow pupils.

Now Mkwanazi, 18, who has pleaded guilty to the crime before KwaZulu-Natal Judge-President Vuka Tshabalala in the Durban High Court, is facing a future behind bars.

Mkwanazi does not fit the stereotype of a young criminal. He comes from a devout family from Mariannhill, near Pinetown.

'I then realised she would make my life miserable'

The second eldest of six children, he often helped look after his younger siblings.

He had a weekend job and, above this, helped look after the family goats.

On the whole he did well at school, was a class representative and did not drink or take drugs.

According to his mother, he was "reserved and quiet".

But underneath this, Mkwanazi was seething and could not forget what had happened in 2004. Because of his introverted nature, he did not open up to others about his feelings.

In his guilty plea before the court and in an interview with a probation officer, he told of how he had first met the attractive student teacher, Ndala, in 2004 when he was a pupil at Ndengetho High School.

He had fancied her, approached her and made advances.

She was shocked, he said, and told him he was far too young for her.

Mkwanazi claimed that Ndala had become vindictive towards him, finding fault with everything he did and "singling" him out. He claimed his life became so intolerable that he transferred to a new school, Thornwood Secondary, the following year.

This version, however, was not backed up by evidence, which showed that Ndala had only been a student teacher at the school for one month. And, it emerged in evidence, he had failed that year and this was the reason for his leaving the school.

The state and the defence agree that Mkwanazi and Ndala did not meet again until February this year, when she secured a teaching post at Thornwood.

She was neither his class teacher nor his subject teacher, but was the invigilator in a geography exam he sat on March 28.

Mkwanazi says she accused him of copying, calling him a "copycat". This was because he had been seated sideways at his desk.

"I then realised she would make my life miserable and that she wanted to destroy my future," he said.

Mkwanazi excused himself from the exam and left the school premises, but came back soon afterwards and stabbed Ndala twice. It was his habit to carry a knife to school, he said, because he needed a weapon to defend himself.

Mkwanazi said he had not wanted to kill Ndala, but rather to punish her and make her feel the pain she had caused him.

According to clinical psychologist Thandeka Moloi, Mkwanazi had "failed to achieve a sense of identity between childhood and adulthood".

"He focused on his humiliation . . . but he has reconciled himself that he has done wrong."

However, under cross- examination by state advocate Bheki Manyathi, she conceded that he still believed that Ndala was at fault "because he could not deal with his problems in a healthy way".

Sentence will be passed on November 19. Mkwanazi is being held in police cells.

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  Readers' Comments

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  Date Posted: Thursday 06-Nov-2008
  to 'cat'.
  
  yes it does happen here in america. the fbi statistics show that inter racil murder rates caused by blacks are approx. 5,000 percent higher than that caused by whites. the columbine killers were jews. why the hate(?), i think it has something to do with being transgressed.
  
  Zampan0
  

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  Date Posted: Friday 30-May-2008
  This is to "jack" and "someone from america"...the truth is and you know it, is that the same things happen right here in th u.s., but worse, you've got these white teachers molesting their students FREAKS, and do you remember COLUMBINE? Sure you do... white boys that killed all of those innocent students, and teachers, and kids daily bring weapons and drugs to schools in the United States (white and black) and kill each other...While you're so busy condeming Africas blacks, focus on fixing whats wrong in your own country. You take time to answer the posts, who knows...maybe you guys are molesting children, or have killed someone. The problem isnt race, its "hate", the same type of ignorant hate that you display on these posts. i though Americans were more civilised than that! You're acting just as barbaric and display the same hatered as the African blacks! What makes you any better?
  
  cat
  

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  Date Posted: Saturday 16-Feb-2008
  I had always wanted to go to South Africa, having been under the delusion it was still a safe, white paradise! Unless I had several armed bodygaurds, I wouldn't step foot into ANY African country, black or Arab. :(
  
  Someone from America
  The South
  

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  Date Posted: Monday 04-Feb-2008
  one thing i want to say to all the white people out there no matter if u english or afrikaans we must stand together and fight but if no one wants to we will loose the battle.
  
  Jack
  

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  Date Posted: Monday 04-Feb-2008
  one thing i want to say to all the white people out there no matter if u english or afrikaans we must stand together and fight but if no one wants to we will loose the battle and i know every white person out there wants them dead so all of us whites must or it wont work
  
  Jack
  

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  Date Posted: Sunday 16-Sep-2007
  This happens in every city, region and country where the blacks become close to a majority. And yet we can't say out loud that, as a group, they are a less civilised and morally corrupt people. Meanwhile, they destroy everything they touch.
  
  Menno
  The Netherlands
  

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  Date Posted: Wednesday 12-Sep-2007
  comments concerning the two respondants are from robots of fear. when a horrible thing occurs such as this there response is the same as the perpretrator to kill the threat what ever your culture is commonsense must prevail. The person is disturbed mentally and a prison sentence and true reabilatation has to occur locking up the problem does not make it go away.
  
  mark
  melbourne
  Australia
  

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  Date Posted: Wednesday 05-Sep-2007
  My sister was a teacher at a previously Afrikaans white primary school. The blacks took over and she got stuck with a black grade 1 class. Needles to say it is a Afrikaans school no more.
  According to her, these children are out of control. They do as they please, they have no respect for people in charge.
  There is one thing she has learned teaching these little savages. DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON THEM! Twice they had tried to stab her! Once with a pencil and once with a pair of scissors. And what happened to these little killers in the making.......NOTHING!!!
  
  Willie
  Pretoria
  Suid-Afrika
  

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  Date Posted: Wednesday 05-Sep-2007
  He's an eighteen-year-old adult -- and even as a 15-year-old, black males already are physically fully-developed adults with all the strength and acouterments thereof. He should be judged as an adult.He also was a black male from a traditional tribal background and another reason he killed this poor woman was the fact that women are not allowed to be figures of authority in African cultures. This is typical young-male behaviour towards a Queen Bee female who was much more educated, wiser and more authorative than he was.
  
  To put it simply, this young African male hated and feared this woman because she was a powerful female and wasn't afraid of him. He "showed her" didn't he?
  
  I most sincerely hope they dump him in jail for the next twenty-years -- which is the maximum serving time for a 'life sentence' in South Africa.
  
  There in the glorious New South Africa's holiday camp-like prisons and as a handsome young African male, he will really find out what it's like to be 'the woman".
  
  May he die of Aids - but very, very slowly while being raped every hour of the day.
  
  adrianastuijt@knid.nl
  Dokkum
  the Netherlands
  

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  Date Posted: Tuesday 04-Sep-2007
  Enraged at her attempts to "destroy his life", he stabbed her to death in front of his fellow pupils.
  
  Can't fault that logic.
  
  anonymous
  Cape Town
  South Africa