Sibongile Happiness Ngwadla has pleaded guilty to brutally killing Simphiwe Ntobeko Xaba from Umlazi in August 2025.
A debt-fuelled obsession, a child's terrified cries, and a mother's grief that still refuses to loosen its grip.
Those were the devastating details laid bare in the Durban High Court after an Umlazi woman admitted to kidnapping and murdering five-year-old Simphiwe Ntobeko Xaba, a crime she says was driven by resentment, desperation and mounting gambling debts.
Sibongile Happiness Ngwadla, 40, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of murder, kidnapping and attempted extortion, formally acknowledging her role in the abduction and killing of the boy in August 2025.
In a plea statement presented before the court, Ngwadla said she deliberately targeted Simphiwe because she harboured bitterness towards his mother, Ntombifikile Xaba, whom she blamed for introducing her to online gambling.
