Judge Tandaswa Ndita who is presiding over the trial concerning the kidnapping of Zephany Nurse is no stranger to cases that have captured the attention of the media.
|||Cape Town - Western Cape High Court Judge Tandaswa Ndita is to preside over the trial concerning the 1997 kidnapping of 3-day-old Zephany Nurse when it starts on Monday.
Judge Ndita, who has more than two decades of experience as a judicial officer – first as a magistrate and then as a judge – has also spent time serving as an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
She will take the reins when the accused, who cannot be identified in order to protect Zephany’s real identity, is expected to be asked to plead to charges of kidnapping, fraud and contravention of the Children’s Act.
The trial, which is expected to attract widespread attention, is scheduled to continue until March 10.
Judge Ndita is no stranger to cases that have captured the attention of the media.
ln 2005, when she was an acting judge in the High Court, she sentenced Moegamat Yusuf Isaacs to life imprisonment for the murder of 8-year-old Sasha Leigh Crook.
Sasha-Leigh, of Crawford, was snatched from her grandparents’ home in Ottery on July 6, 2003. Her body was found a week later.
Isaacs, a neighbour of Sasha-Leigh’s grandparents, was arrested and charged with murder and rape.
He was acquitted of the rape charge, but Judge Ndita convicted him of murder.
In imposing the life sentence, the acting judge said the court had a duty to protect children and needed to send Isaacs, other offenders and the public a clear message. She was appointed as a judge months later.
In 2012, Judge Ndita sentenced Khayelitsha serial rapist Soyisiso Nofemele to 11 life terms in jail after he admitted raping 11 girls, aged between 2 and 8, and strangling one to death because she would not stop crying. He confessed he lured his victims with the promise of chips and sweets.
Judge Ndita described Nofemele as a pervert and a sex predator who had a “sick and disgusting mind”.
Now she will have the task of presiding over yet another sensitive case as she decides the fate of a woman who was the only mother Zephany knew for 17 years.
Western Cape spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, Eric Ntabazalila, confirmed the State was ready to proceed with the trial.
State advocate Evadne Kortje was to represent the State and Hawks detective Captain Kenneth Speed was expected to see the case through because investigating officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Barkhuizen, was booked off ill. According to the indictment, Zephany’s biological mother, Celeste Nurse, gave birth to her by caesarean section on April 28, 1997 at Groote Schuur Hospital. The accused allegedly befriended Nurse two days later and managed to persuade Nurse to allow her to hold Zephany while Nurse rested.
Instead she kidnapped the child, the State alleges.
Six years later she took Zephany to a Department of Home Affairs office in Malmesbury and registered the child as her own under another name, the indictment read.
Zephany’s date of birth was recorded as April 30, 1997 – allegedly two days after she was born.
These details were entered into the population register.
The State alleges the woman also deceived her husband into believing the child was theirs.
She was arrested in February last year after the child was told she could be the missing Zephany Nurse, after pupils at the school she attended noticed she bore a striking resemblance to Zephany’s biological sister.
The sister coincidentally attended the same school.
The State says it has DNA evidence to prove the child is Zephany.
The accused was released from custody on R5 000 bail and is not allowed any contact with the child.
Weekend Argus