The trial of Siyabonga Mbotyi, accused of the gruesome murder of his girlfriend Nandipha Mthimkhulu nearly five years ago, started in the Western Cape High Court on Monday (4 March).
The now 34-year-old was indicted for murder and the mutilation of the 23-year-old mother’s corpse in 2019.
DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette’s sister publication City Vision reported on the incident, which occurred in Solly’s Town informal settlement on the night of Friday 25 October 2019 (“Woman brutally killed,” 31 October 2019). Mthimkhulu was apparently killed by strangulation before a sharp object was used to mutilate her body.
The neighbours apparently heard screams coming from Mthimkulu’s shack during the night, but were too scared to investigate.
Early the following morning, on investigation, they discovered the deceased’s mutilated body in her shack. Her baby boy, only 3 months old at the time, was found wrapped in a blanket, lying next to the body and crying uncontrollably.
The police were alerted and later found the deceased’s body parts on the roof of the shack.
According to her father – who expressed trauma over his child’s killing “like a goat, her body mutilated” – Mbotyi and Mthimkhulu had been together for three years before the murder, which allegedly stemmed from an argument between the two.
Mbotyi was arrested two days later (27 October) and made his first appearance in the Strand Magistrates’ Court on 28 October. He did not apply for bail.
According to the investigating officers, Warrant Officer Marius Erasmus and Sergeant Wynand Carelse, the murder trial started with key witnesses, including the accused’s sister and neighbours taking to the stand. The two detectives, among other police officers involved in the case, were also called to the stand in light of the failed admissibility of the accused’s confession as well as unrefuted claims that he had been assaulted by police on his apprehension. The confession was admitted as evidence following their testimonies. At the time of going to print on Tuesday morning (5 March), the Lwandle detectives were gearing up for cross-examination ahead of an expected verdict.
