‘Blesser Finder’ ‘victim’ may have begged for her life

The girlfriend of one of the men accused of murdering a 15-year-old girl lured into a trap through a Facebook “Blesser Finder” group yesterday told the High Court in Pretoria she had heard a girl begging for her life and saw her being hit with a stick while tied to a chair.

Live Mabasa testified in the trial of John Lekubu, 30, Tebogo Mabulana, 32, Lesolo Mashao and Eugene Machete, who all pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, murdering and robbing Centurion teen Keleabetse Seleka at the Brazzaville informal settlement, near Atteridgeville in Pretoria, in November 2016.

The state alleges the four had killed Seleka after Lekubu lured her to Brazzaville after posing as a “blesser” on Facebook, before dumping her body in a pit toilet where it was found in a severely decomposed state a month later.

Asked to look at the pictures of Seleka, Mabasa said it looked like the person she had seen with the four accused that day.

Mabasa testified that she and a friend had gone to visit her boyfriend, Mashao, in Brazzaville on November 28, 2016, where she saw a young lady arriving with Lekubu.

Lekubu and the lady went into his shack, but he came out after about five minutes and gave Mashao money to buy food.

She later heard a lady screaming “please don’t kill me”, whereafter Lekubu came out and called the other three accused inside.

Mabasa said she had seen the lady, clad only in her underwear, with her arms tied to a chair inside the shack.

She saw Mabulana hitting her on the back of her head with a stick while Lekubu stood at the door saying something about a PIN.

Mabulana had blood on him when he came outside.

Later that night, she saw Lekubu, Mabulana and Mashao carrying something rolled up in a carpet.

She said Lekubu had threatened her to keep quiet about what she saw and Mashao had called her several times from his phone after their arrest and threatened that she and her children would die if she ever came to court.

According to Mabasa, Mashao’s wife had at one stage entered the shack with a small bottle she said contained poison.

She also admitted to drinking beer with the accused that night, but denied they were smoking dagga.

The trial continues.