Keiskammahoek Man Sentenced for the Murder of his Grandparents

13 MARCH 2025

Keiskammahoek Man Sentenced for the Murder of his Grandparents

The High Court of South Africa, Eastern Cape Division, Bhisho, Qhamani Katana Nqayi (29) to an effective 30-year imprisonment term for the murder of his grandparents to feed his drug addiction. Nqayi entered into a plea and sentence agreement with the state and was sentenced to life imprisonment, 25 years imprisonment for each of the two counts of murder, 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances and three years for house breaking with intent to rob. The court ordered some of the sentences to run concurrently.

In his plea explanation, Nqayi admitted to bludgeoning his grandfather and grandmother, Mlungisi and Nomboniso Nqayi, to death with an axe at the homestead they shared in the Chatha location. On that fateful evening, Nqayi was with the elderly couple, his uncle and another two-year-old grandchild when there was a power outage due to loadshedding. They left the grandparents in the main house and went to sleep in their respective rooms outside. In the middle of the night, he broke into the main house to steal cellphones belonging to the couple. While inside the house, the grandparents woke up and saw him. He then decided to kill them with an axe. He proceeded to steal their cellphones and took them to a known local drug dealer in return for drugs that he smoked and returned to sleep at home.

His uncle, the son of the deceased, made the gruesome discovery of his lifeless parents the following morning, with the toddler-granddaughter sitting next to them. The killer-grandson was sitting next to his outside room, motionless, saying nothing. The uncle summoned relatives and community members, and a bloodied axe was found inside the house. Police were called, and the perpetrator was arrested. Despite Nqayi’s admissions, State Advocate Nkululeko Mzinyati argued in aggravation that both deceased persons were elderly, unarmed and defenceless persons who were supposed to be protected by their grandson. He added that offences motivated by drug addictions were prevalent and very serious.

Welcoming the sentence, Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Barry Madolo declared that the NPA is committed to ensuring that justice is served for the victims and working with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that other would-be offenders are deterred. It is for particularly for those reasons that the NPA, in partnership with SAPS, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and Eastern Cape Department of Community Safety, will be hosting an awareness imbizo in another village of Lower Gxulu in the same drug-infested small town of Keiskammahoek on 19 March 2025.

Issued by:

Luxolo Tyali
NPA Regional Spokesperson
Eastern Cape Division
Tel: 047 501 2630
Email: ltyali@npa.gov.za