The man who shot and killed his son at Fred Norman Secondary School in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg in June is expected to appear again in the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Sibusiso Tshabalala faces a charge of murder, but he wants to enter into a plea bargain with the state on a charge of culpable homicide.
Tshabalala says he thought he was being hijacked when he fatally shot his teenage son Luyanda. The boy had knocked on his father’s car after coming from an evening class. During his previous court appearance last month, it emerged that Sibusiso Tshabalala had, through his lawyer, successfully persuaded the state not to transfer his case to the High Court for trial.
The matter is now set to be finalised in the Lenasia Magistrate’s Court. Tshabalala’s laywer has also been negotiating with the National Prosecuting Authority over the possibility of a plea bargain.
If the NPA agrees, the murder charge is likely to be changed to culpable homicide, to which Tshabalala would plead guilty. Tshabalala has been out on a warning since his first appearance in June.
