W A R N I N G -------GRAPHIC READING -
A man accused of killing a Soshanguve schoolgirl told a judge the child was still alive when her womb was ripped from her body during a ritual killing.
This emerged in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.
Brian Mangwale earlier told another magistrate one of his friends strangled the child, and she was already dead when he cut out her womb and removed her breast, which he sold to a sangoma for R3 000.
Family members wept as details of the last hours of 10-year-old Masego Kgomo's life emerged.
Statements to the police and two magistrates, in which Mangwale gave vastly conflicting accounts of the murder, were read out in court after Judge Billy Mothle ruled they were admissible as evidence.
This was despite Mangwale's claims that police had tortured him and never explained his rights to him.
He denied ever pointing out Masego's decomposed body in the veld behind the Soshanguve train station eight days after she disappeared on December 31 2009.
A policeman earlier testified that Mangwale appeared to have been possessed by the spirits of ancestors when he voluntarily pointed out the body in the veld behind the Soshanguve railway station.
The court had to adjourn for a while when Garankuwa Magistrate Johan Jantjes started weeping while reading Mangwale's statement.
Mangwale told him he and a group of friends had taken the young girl to a traditional healer in Soshanguve, who gave them a concoction to drink before he dragged the crying Masego into a room.
The girl was still crying when the traditional healer returned with her about ten minutes later and started sprinkling something on her.
Mangwale claimed the traditional healer had then returned with a knife and a clay pot and ordered Masego to lie down on a bed.
When she refused, she was forcibly held down while the traditional healer stabbed her in the stomach, put his hand inside her body and removed something that looked like a ball, which he put into the clay pot.
He also removed her left breast.
Mangwale told the magistrate he heard the others had wrapped the child's body in plastic and drank muti again before dumping her body in the veld on the instructions of the traditional healer.
Hid body parts
A Soshanguve magistrate testified that Mangwale had just a week earlier made a statement to her, in which he said he and a group of friends had taken Masego along went they went out drinking.
This was after the child had earlier in the day volunteered to go and buy cooldrink for him at a tuck shop.
He claimed three of his friends had raped the girl in his absence, but he had not reported it to the police because he knew of a woman "who wanted a girl".
He told the magistrate he and his friends had taken the child to a bushy area, where his friend Nunu strangled her when she wanted to scream.
According to his first statement, the girl was already dead when Masego slit open her stomach and removed her womb and breast, which he put into a plastic bag.
He said he had hidden the body parts behind his home before helping Masego's family search for her, but had sold it to a woman in Mabopane for R3000 the next day.
While pointing out the scene of the crime to police, Mangwale claimed he and his friends had a deal to hand over Masego to a traditional healer for body parts.
In that statement, he also claimed the girl was still alive when the traditional healer cut open her stomach.
Mangwale will take the stand in his defence on Friday.
MAY THIS POOR CHILD REST IN PEACE
This case is taking so long. It should have been treated as a high priority case. It should have been completed long ago and everyone involved in this case must be put away forever. No one deserve to be killed like an animal. This was an innocent child who failed to scream even if those thugs were beating her. She was all alone in the hours of darkness. Residents must watch out for people walking with little children especially if the child seems to be crying. We must stand together to fight this type of crime. It is really disgusting.
ReplyDeleteIm sorry but this is pathetic
ReplyDeleteOnce again i am reading about a country that has absoloutely no hope - I have been in the Military for over 10 years now ( luckily most of it was served in the Uk ) and i believe that every time i come home it gets worse and worse - there is no doubt in my mind that it is a cultural problem and we are all kidding ourselves if we believe it will change for the better. This poor kid is just another example of how useless this country is.
For those of you who believe in having pride for ones homeland - I certainly agree but when the homeland has no pride for you - LEAVE!!
The vast majority of people are becoming more and more corrupt! it becomes more and more obvious as time goes by and having lived in other countries im blown away by how bad SA is!
Rape, High jacking, Murder... it is getting worse every day and thats what is being reported! - let alone what isnt making the news.
I cant believe in this day and age we have to read about the useless individuals who still beleive this kind of Medicine / Muti works.
To all those people reading this and thinking - oh well it isnt that bad here or it will never happen to me or my child - think again! you are being naive and you will only put your family at risk with that kind of mindset.
Im a white english speaking male and i believe ive had it easy with regards to how crime has affected me - i have been robbed at gun point 3 times and laughed off 1 knife attack! thats it!
im not living in despair like some black people, who are subjected to this crap every day.
At the same time though most nearly all of the crime is black and its something i would feel embaressed about - but it just doenst seem to bother that group of people. Yes you can say im generalising but look at the stats and just look at how things are run or how the police deal with things when a black person is in charge
Im actually not a racist, i dont have the time for that nonsense but i really do believe that certain CULTURES are prone to pathetic acts of violence more so than others - culture not skin colour is our problem - most nearly all of the culutes that are prone to crime in thsi area are black ones -- sorry but its statistical fact not white man racism - the sooner people admmit this the faster we can change - or else we will go round and round in circles - well you will! ill be long gone!
LEAVE NOW!!!!!!!! Why put your family though this - we only have 1 life - why waste it
Ive spent the past few years in and out of war zones and i shouldnt have to come home to one
Hope the young one rests in peace...