Sifiso Mkhwanazi confessed to father about killing sex workers, court hears

The Gauteng High Court, sitting in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, has heard the disturbing details of how the bodies of six Zimbabwean sex workers were found at a panel-beating premises in Johannesburg.

The father of 21-year-old Sifiso Mkhwanazi continued with his testimony as the state’s second witness in the murder trial on Tuesday.

Mkhwanazi faces a range of charges, including murder, rape, robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

Although the accused admitted to killing his victims, he has denied premeditating the murders or raping the sex workers.

One of the women was fatally shot in the head, while the other five were allegedly choked to death.

Six bodies

During the court proceedings, the suspect’s father, Mike Khumalo, described how the first body was discovered by Michael Kingsley Damien, who was responsible for maintenance at the building the deceased were found in.

Damien testified on Monday that he alerted the police about a foul smell coming from the building located in central Johannesburg.

Khumalo, in evidence-in-chief, revealed that more bodies were found following his son’s arrest on 9 October 2022.

ALSO READ: Sifiso Mkhwanazi admits to killing sex workers, but denies rape charges

Mkhwanazi had last been seen walking into the building with a woman by a security guard on 2 October.

According to the father, the second body was found near a drain after the police gave him, Damien and security guards permission to clean the premises.

“We see the drainage is blocked, then he tried to unblock it; while we were busy unblocking that hall, on the side of the drainage, there is a box like a chimney that’s quite bigger, it was down there, on that box we saw some flies flying around, others are dead, then we went to inspect what’s happening.

ALSO READ: ‘He took her right in front of my eyes’ – witness links Mkhwanazi to victim

“On that side of that chimney, it’s got like squares when we look in there, we saw that there is a body but we couldn’t see because the body was decaying, we could see the body of a human being.”

Following the discovery of the second body, Khumalo said a police officer was alerted.

“He said ‘let me call the forensics people back’,” the witness continued.

ALSO READ: Case against Joburg sex worker murder accused delayed once again

They then searched the entire premises to see if there were more bodies.

It was at this point that one of the security guards noticed a the third body under some plastic near a dustbin.

“I was still on this box chimney, then I realised that the dustbin was one of the three dustbins missing in the workshop.

“On his way to investigate the dustbin… he saw a white plastic, then he stopped on the plastic before the dustbin. Then we all came, we then realised in the plastic there was also a body,” Khumalo told the court.

Watch the trial below:

The security guard opened the one of the dustbins with a stick to find the fourth body.

Khumalo further revealed that they noticed a scrap vehicle, where the fifth body was found.

Looking inside the van they noticed a lot of dead flies on the driver’s side, but there was nothing else.

When they tried to look in the back of the van, they realised it was locked.

Khumalo said they had to unlock the door with a hammer and a chisel.

ALSO READ: Man nabbed after decomposing bodies found in Joburg building

“Behind the van there was a truck, we checked and the front doors were open. Looking at the back of the truck, we noticed a small lock. We broke it open and saw another body, which was inside a dustbin,” Khumalo said about the discovery of the last body.

Mkhwanazi’s father testified that he suspected that none of the bodies had been discovered before due to the perpetrator either being “an inside man” or the places the bodies were discovered in were rarely visited.

He added that the police arrived with a senior officer and the premises was cleared out.

Confession

Khumalo further revealed in court that he only made contact with Mkhwanazi when his son called him three weeks after his arrest.

Mkhwanazi allegedly called to ask him to come to his court hearing, to which Khumalo agreed.

“When I went to court I saw him, then after the court I went to the canteen in the court, I [bought] some food then I took it to him,” Khumalo said.

ALSO READ: Joburg bodies: Accused claims father tried to force him to confess

Upon taking the food to Mkhwanazi, they had a conversation to which Mkhwanazi confessed his crimes.

“I asked him what happened,” Khumalo said.

State prosecutor Advocate Leswikane Mashabela subsequently asked the court for Khumalo’s testimony to be admitted as evidence.

ALSO READ: Bodies found in Joburg: Man accused of killing six people only facing one count of murder

“The conversation that the father had with the accused amounted to a confession and my submission is that this confession was made to a private person.”

Earlier, the court had ruled that a trial-within-a-trial would take place in order to determine the admissibility of Mkhwanazi’s alleged confession into the main trial.

The trial will continue on Wednesday.