Bokgabo accused pleads not guilty

The 30-year-old man accused of murdering four-year-old Bokgabo Poo pleaded not guilty to murder and three other charges related to her death.

However, on August 1 during the second day of the trial in a Pretoria High Court sitting at the Benoni Magistrate’s Court, Ntokozo Zikhali (30) pleaded guilty to raping a nine-year-old Benoni girl in 2021.

Bokgabo’s mutilated body was found in a veld in Wattville after she went missing on October 10 last year while playing with a friend in Masoleng Park.

Zikhali, of Dalpark, faces charges of kidnapping, rape, murder, defeating the ends of justice and violating a corpse.

He initially faced six counts, but count two (the charge of rape of the nine-year-old) was withdrawn by the State due to insufficient evidence.

In his guilty plea, read by his attorney, advocate Anneke van Wyk, Zikhali stated that he unlawfully sexually penetrated the nine-year-old without her consent on August 8, 2021.

He said the victim was playing in a park with her friends, and when the friends left, he approached her and asked if she would take a picture of him.

He then picked her up, closed her mouth and took her to a dam, where he raped her.

Zikhali said he knew what he did was wrong and wanted to apologise to the child by going to the park, hoping to find her again.

During proceedings, evidence, such as the post-mortem, photos of Bokgabo and a human leg found buried in the yard of a house in Wattville and a J88 document (complete hospital report) were filed as exhibits.

Witness
The first witness to take the stand on August 1 was Bokgabo’s mother, Tsholofelo Poo, who battled to hold back her tears while relating the events of that fateful day when she found that her daughter was missing and had to view her mutilated body at a mortuary.

The distraught mother said her child’s body was in a bad state, adding that her eyes and private parts were removed and her left arm severed.

She further indicated that her little girl had stab wounds to the chest.

The trial continues on August 2.

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