Tonga - A murder trial against a Mpumalanga teen mom
accused of strangling her 18-month-old daughter came to a halt when her Legal
Aid attorney told the court that the accused refuses to co-operate.
The accused, Nomcebo Mahlalela, 19, of Tsambokhulu Trust
near Komatipoort, appeared in the Boschfontein Regional Court on Friday.
She has not been asked to plead to a charge of murder.
Legal Aid attorney Refiloe Tsotetsi told the court that
Mahlalela refuses to talk to her.
"Your Worship, I spent an hour trying to talk with
my client but she just keeps quiet... I find it difficult to work with
her," said Tsotetsi.
Mahlalela, a Grade 12 pupil at Lebombo High School, was
arrested on May 16 last year after community members grew suspicious when
seeing her without her toddler, Faithful Masinga.
?It
was later found that the child had been strangled and dumped on a mountain near
the Swaziland border. ?It
is still not clear why the child was killed.
Magistrate Edgar Moletsane extended Mahlalela's R1 000
bail and postponed the case to May 28 for the trial to start.
