Alleged sex worker serial killer tells court rage, fear led to murders

However, he did admit to killing six women, who were believed to be sex workers, between April and October 2022.

Their partially decomposed bodies were found at a panel beating shop in the Johannesburg CBD after workers alerted authorities to a disturbing smell on the premises.

On Friday, the state confirmed plea negotiations were unsuccessful.

The state and defence agree that Mkhwanazi strangled five of his victims to death and another, as detailed in his admission before the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge, east of Johannesburg.

The 21-year-old faces six counts of murder, seven counts of rape, as well as several counts of defeating the ends of justice, robbery, and the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

But the National Prosecuting Authority Phindi Mjonondwana says during the pre-trial conference, Mkhwanazi denied the state's claim that he planned murders, adding that the sexual encounters were consensual.

"The issue of premeditation, one count of defeating the ends of justice, the counts of rapes, and one count of robbery. That is what the state will focus on in proving its case, and that is what the defence will also be allowed to bring in evidence in defence of the allegations against him."

Meanwhile, Mkhwanazi told the court he was angered by what he says was a false rape allegation that landed him in jail for 10 months in 2021.

He claims the alleged victim falsely accused him of rape after he refused to pay her more money than what they had agreed to when he picked her up for sex.

Mkhwanazi was released when the case was withdrawn.

In his admission, the accused says, like in the previous case, his encounters with the victims were transactional. When the women pushed for money like his earlier accuser, he was enraged and fearful of being falsely accused again, so he killed them.

Mkhwanazi admits to strangling Patricia Magaiza until she became unconscious and covering her face with a cloth before tying a rope around her neck.

He then placed her lifeless body in a drum full of old vehicle oil inside the workshop.

"When the body didn't fit in the drum, the accused removed the body from the oil and concealed it in the yard outside," prosecutor Lesikwane Mashabela told the court.

The court also heard details of how Mkhwanazi killed Chihota Nyarai, Joyce Moyo, and three other women who remain unidentified.

The state rejected Mkhwanazi's insistence that the murders were instinctive and that the sex he had with the women was consensual.

The prosecution says it’s confident it will successfully prove this when the case returns to court on Monday, 5 February, for trial.

Mkhwanazi pleaded for the court's mercy when sentencing him.

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