Byline: Nonjabuliso Nhlambo
05 December 2025
45-year-old Ntombikayise Ellie Malinga appeared before the Evander Magistrates’ court on Tuesday, 02 December, facing a charge of kidnapping a minor.
It was heard in court that Malinga and the grandmother of the child are sisters, and that she deceitfully took the child and went into hiding.
Security personnel, together with the distraught mother of the child, went on a search trying to find her and the child, where she was alleged to be at a certain farm near Standerton.
After several attempts to reach her with no luck, she was then threatened to be exposed on Facebook; that was when she was allegedly coerced and arrested.
Kidnapping of a minor child, the accused is the mother of the victim.
The court’s findings could not rule out that Malinga took the child to perform certain rituals, as the child was found with something black, like ash or teabags, in the ears, which appeared as something had been performed on the child.
She was sentenced to three years’ direct imprisonment and declared unfit to possess a firearm.
