Give killer ‘3 life sentences for what he did to my child' - mom of 6-year-old Amantle Samane
Ntombizodwa Samane testified that her four other children were struggling with trauma.
The defence highlighted that the Mozambican national is a first-time offender, the father of a toddler, and had shown remorse by pleading guilty.
The emotional mother of slain six-year-old Amantle Samane told the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg that her daughter would have turned seven on Tuesday.
The mother pleaded with the court to deliver three life sentences against Amantle's rapist and murderer, Mozambican national Pethe Sara Simiao.
Testifying during mitigation and aggravation of sentence on Monday, Ntombizodwa Samane said she was still traumatised and haunted by her little one's death.
'Whenever I hear a child crying outside, I become angry because it reminds me of Amantle. This incident has killed my soul and feelings. I battle to sleep. Her death gave me hatred towards foreigners,' she told the court.
Samane said Simiao had destroyed her family.
'Simiao cut my daughter's life short at a very young age. He knew what he was doing. I have flashbacks whenever I remember the painful sight of her dead body, which I found on 21 October 2024,' she said.
Samane added that her other children were still struggling to accept the loss.
Of her four children, one had become rebellious while another became withdrawn and stopped speaking altogether, she told the court.
Amantle was described as a bubbly and happy child who was in Grade R and had dreamt of becoming a nurse.
'She loved speaking broken English while standing in front of a mirror. She enjoyed school, church activities, and dancing. She was very close to her siblings,' her mother testified.
Amantle's body was discovered in Simiao's shack by a teenage boy before police arrived. It had been covered with a blanket.
Samane said she and her children were still attending counselling sessions, and that she had to rely on donations and assistance from a bank, funeral parlour, and government departments to bury her daughter.
Samane testified:
Meanwhile, Simiao's lawyer, Ndivhuhuwo Masindi, told the court his client was 25 years old, married, and a father of a three-year-old.
'He pleaded guilty to all charges, is a first offender, and didn't waste the court's time dragging the matter to a trial. He showed remorse by conceding that his deeds were wrong,' Masindi said.
He added that Simiao had passed matric, studied welding, and was self-employed at the time of his arrest on 23 October 2024 in Soweto, where he rented a backroom.
Amantle was murdered on 21 October 2024 in Orlando East, Soweto.
She was playing outside her home with her friends when she was snatched by Simiao.
Her body was later found in the shack rented by Simiao after residents launched a search.
A neighbour reported that she saw him walking into his shack with the child.
Simiao was arrested three days later in Zola 1, Soweto, where he had fled.
Last week, Simiao pleaded guilty to charges including kidnapping, murder, rape and contravening the Immigration Act.
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