MAID JAILED 12YRS FOR BURNING BOSS’S HOUSE

MBABANE – Zenzile Tfwala, the maid who burnt down her employer’s double-storey house after stealing household items valued at E54 000 will spend 12 years in jail.

This comes after Senior Magistrate Nonhlanhla Dlamini found Tfwala (27) guilty of arson and housebreaking offences. Tfwala was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for arson and five years imprisonment for housebreaking without an option to pay fines.

Her sentences were made to run consecutively, which means that she will serve one sentence after the other. Dlamini suspended three years of her sentence, which reduced her years of incaration from 15 to 12 years.
In her own words when defending herself in the matter, Tfwala confessed that she burnt down the house that was rented by her employer, Nishana Maharaj, at Selection Park to defeat the ends of justice.

She said this was after the police had informed her that they would come back to take the fingerprints that were visible in some items in the house to ascertain the perpetrator after the housebreaking incident. Tfwala described her act as temptation since she was never ill-treated by her employers.

However, Crown Counsel Mbutfo Mbingo was of the view that Tfwala’s actions were signs that she pre-planned the commission of the offence. Mbingo quoted some events that were confirmed by Tfwala and her employers during the commission of the offence.
 Mbingo asked the court to consider the fact that when Nishana Maharaj and her husband Bimal Da Silva rushed to the South African hospital to check on their relative, who was admitted after a heart attack, Tfwala was in constant communication with them.

“You always sent your bosses WhatApp messages informing them that all was well in the house. You even quoted strong verses from the Bible so much that your bosses believed that you really wished them a safe journey and their ill brother a speedy recovery yet in actual fact you wanted to ascertain their whereabouts,” said Mbingo.

He said that alone clearly described Tfwala’s real character. He mentioned that her act of distancing herself from the housebreaking offence after reporting it to the police showed that she had planned what she was doing.
“You once made the garden boy return home when he found a strange man washing your boss’s car in the driveway. 
She was reminded that when her boss testified against her, she informed the court that her Lexus car was on numerous occasions driven out of the garage as reflected on the tracking device and fuel gauge.
This was despite the fact that the car keys were locked inside the main house where no one was allowed to enter during the couple’s absentia.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: