One resident spoke to OFM News anonymously and said she knows the 21-year-old woman whose name is Masekate Mallela and even worked with the young woman’s mother at a local shop several years ago. She expressed her disbelief after hearing Mallela’s name on local radio stations and could not imagine that the young woman was capable of such a crime. This comes as the 75-year-old woman’s memorial service is set to take place at 14:00 this afternoon at the Leslie Monnanyane Hall in the Bloemfontein suburb of Rocklands. The pair, who are also believed to be a couple, is facing murder and aggravated robbery charges in the Local Magistrate’s Court.

Mallela and 23-year-old Lonwabo Ntobela made their first appearances in a packed courtroom 20 in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Monday, January 21. They will reappear in the same courtroom on January 28 for their bail applications after the matter was postponed by Magistrate Vuyelwa Mahamba on Monday, as per the request of the prosecutor, Johan de Vries. The pair stands accused of robbing and strangling Thibeletsa. They are said to have placed the elderly woman’s body in the boot of her own car and proceeded to drive to Kroonstad where they burned and dumped the body.

Court documents indicate that the duo was tracked and eventually pinned down by police in the Eastern Cape town of Aliwal North – where Ntobela is from - on Thursday, January 17, following Thibeletsa’s disappearance. Mallela and Ntobela are believed to have been the 75-year-old woman’s tenants at the time of the crime.

OFM News