South African schoolgirl killed for staying a virgin

Teenage schoolgirl Nobuhle Khumalo was beaten to death because she had decided to remain a virgin, it was revealed yesterday.

Three 17-year-old girls and a 24-year-old woman from Wasbank, near Ladysmith, were arrested on Thursday in connection with the July murder of Nobuhle Khumalo, 17.

One of Khumalo’s teachers, Samkeliso Chiliza, said that a gang had attacked her with knobkerries because they were jealous of her.


Photo from here.

“The other girls were angry with Nobuhle because she had decided not to have children now, and all the parents held her up as an example,” said Chiliza. “It made the other girls, who already have children, look bad.”Chiliza described Khumalo as an excellent pupil and “an example to women across the whole country”.

Khumalo, who had dreamt of passing matric and overcoming her impoverished background, was found dead with a bottle of pills next to her. Initially, it was thought that she had committed suicide. But a postmortem examination showed she had died of head injuries.

Police spokesperson Captain Shooz Magudulela said the 17-year- olds were charged with the murder of Khumalo and appeared in the dock at the Wasbank Magistrate’s Court in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday afternoon with the 24-year-old woman who is accused with them.