Murder case judgment delayed by magistrate’s illness

A 42-year-old Motherwell man accused of murdering a woman and dumping her body in a canal near the Swartkops River  will have to wait another two weeks to learn his fate after his case was postponed as the presiding officer was ill.

Masixole Dlaku was accused alongside Xolile Booi, but he hanged himself in the police holding cells the day after his arrest.

It is alleged Dlaku and Booi, 44, met murder victim Nothemba Mali, 31, while out partying on September 9 2018.

At the time of the murder, police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge said it appeared that the three had met while spending the better part of the day visiting a number of taverns in the Motherwell area.

It is alleged the trio then went to one of the men’s houses where Mali was allegedly stabbed to death before her body was dumped in a canal near the Swartkops River.

Dlaku and Booi were arrested on a charge of murder on September 13 2018, detained and kept in separate cells at the Motherwell police station.

The following day Booi was found hanging in the police holding cell in an alleged suicide.

At the beginning of the trial, Dlaku pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder.

On Tuesday judgment in the matter was expected to be handed down in the Motherwell Regional Court but after it emerged that the presiding magistrate was ill, the matter was postponed to November 16.

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