The boys were said to be coming back from school. Picture: Thomas Chauke / Pexels
In the afternoon of Wednesday, May 8, two schoolboys from different schools got into a fight while on their way home. Only one would come out from this brawl alive.
South African Police Service (SAPS) Free State spokesperson, Captain Stephen Thakeng, said a nine-year-old boy went to his home to retrieve a knife and returned, subsequently stabbing the 10-year-old boy to death.
“Police were informed about the incident and upon arrival, found a 10-year-old boy, still in school uniform, lying inside the ambulance with a stab wound on the left side of his chest,” said Thakeng.
He went on to say that the paramedics pointed to a silver stainless steel knife with a black handle on the ground. The youngster was certified dead on the spot in one of the streets of Nomzamo Park, Brandfort.
The mother identified the dead boy in the ambulance as her son. According to Thakeng, both boys were in Grade 4 in different primary schools in Brandfort.
An inquest has been opened, and the nine-year-old has been turned over to his parents for referral to social services, said Thakeng.
In a similar case in October 2022, a 16-year-old stabbed another teen, aged15, to death. On the day of the stabbing, there had been a fistfight between the youths that escalated.
When the trial started in February 2024, the defence for the youngster on trial for the murder in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court claimed that the accused had no intention of stabbing and murdering the other boy.
The teenager was convicted and sentenced to five years of imprisonment.
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