DEAF Students kill teacher

FIVE deaf pupils accused of killing their deputy principal yesterday appeared in court for the first time.
The Mthatha Magistrates Court was packed with residents, who reacted with shock to the five arrests over the past two weeks.
The suspects, aged between 18 and 21, were bust four months after Nodumo Mdleleni-Mzimane, deputy principal at Efata School for the Blind and Deaf, was found in her room on the school premises.
She was lying in a pool of blood with a knife sticking out her back.
Three of the suspects were arrested two weeks ago and the other two were bust at school over the weekend.
Speaking through a sign language interpreter, prosecutor Thembisa Ntloko told the suspects if they were found guilty they faced between 15 years and life in prison.
She said the State would oppose bail for all five.
A shocked teacher said the suspects were well behaved and had never been in trouble before.
“There is no way they planned this on their own. Someone from the school must have organised them and known Nodumo’s whereabouts,” said the teacher.
The case was postponed to Monday for a formal bail application. The cops didn’t want to reveal how the suspects were bust but a special task team was working with the education department.
Initial reports suggested the killers entered the victim’s room through the ceiling. Teachers who live on the school premises reported hearing screams. When they knocked on the victim’s door she didn’t answer.
The murder scene was only discovered after cops were called to the scene.
There was a rumour going round that the five pupils were bust after a fellow pupil told psychologists about seeing them covered in blood soon after the murder