Durban — The teen who was allegedly killed by her mother had only been living with her for a year before the murder.

This was according to a relative who spoke outside the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday where Ncamisile Evarista Hlophe appeared charged with the murder of 14-year-old Luvuyo Tafadzwe Bera.

According to police at the time of the murder, reports indicated that on Monday, July 22, the suspect informed the police that her daughter had taken some medication for a headache and fell off her bed.

“The victim had an open wound at the back of her head and was declared dead on the scene. An inquest docket was opened at KwaMashu police station for investigation. Post-mortem results revealed that the death was not of natural causes and the wound was inflicted with an unknown instrument. The mother was then arrested and charged with murder,” said police at the time.

On Wednesday the KwaMashu mother’s matter was postponed to October for the docket. The docket was not in court after the last occasion, when the case was adjourned for further investigation after her unsuccessful bail bid.

“Luvuyo had been living in Johannesburg with her father and stepmother since she was 4 years old, my sister had only been living with her for a year. I didn’t live with them so I wouldn’t be able to tell you in detail what kind of a child she was, what she wanted to do with her life,” said the relative, who preferred not to be named.

Hlophe’s case is now in the hands of provincial task team investigators. This was revealed by the State on Wednesday in court.

The 43-year-old mother was arrested in July and refused bail in August by magistrate N Madlala.

During Hlophe’s bail application, the State revealed that it had statements from neighbours that during the evening they heard noises like people in a physical fight, but they had not thought it could be Hlophe and her child.

Further to this, on that evening neighbours in their statements said they heard the voice of a woman asking for an ambulance to be called, but being afraid, neighbours did not open their doors.

“We are just as shocked as the neighbours are, we never imagined that she would be associated with a murder, but we leave it in the hands of the court now because we don’t have any answers. We don’t know what must have come over her, if she was possessed, we don’t know anything,” said Hlophe’s relative.

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