FINALLY I CAN GRIEVE

The boy who killed her teen son has been sentenced to five years in jail, but while it has brought some closure there is no end to the pain for his heartbroken mother

- PECULIA MUSHWANA

AFTER years of heartache and uncertainty she felt a sense of justice when the boy who killed her teenage son was sentenced.

Yet Jorina Pretorius’ relief is tinged with apprehension as the boy’s defence team are planning to appeal the sentence, threatening to destroy the fragile sense of peace she’s only just begun to find.

The Pinetown regional court in KwaZulu-Natal recently sentenced Durban teen Ryleigh Naidoo to five years in jail for the 2022 murder of Jorina’s 15-year-old son, Jayden Glazer.

Naidoo was convicted of killing his schoolmate in a fight over a girl.

The court heard how the two boys, once friends, fell out and started competing for popularity and girls and arguing about whose parents were richer.

Things came to a head after a weapons-free fight was arranged after school via a WhatsApp group – but Naidoo brought a steak knife to the meeting and stabbed Jayden in the abdomen, ending his life.

Naidoo is now 18 but he’s been sentenced as a child offender in terms of the Child Justice Act as he committed the murder when he was 16.

Jayden’s mother says the sentencing is cold comfort. “I feel a little bit heartbroken,” she tells YOU.

“I don’t think the five years is enough but now his lawyers want to take the case to the high court to try to reduce it to two years.”

The heartbroken mother describes her son’s killing as a betrayal as Jayden and Naidoo used to be close. “Jayden called him a friend. Friends do fight but they don’t kill each other.”