Alleged serial killer’s dad tells court of ‘foul smell’ in workshop
The father of alleged serial killer Sifiso Mkhwanazi is expected to continue testimony in the high court sitting in Palm Ridge on Tuesday.
Mkhwanazi is accused of killing six sex workers between April and October 2022.
Their bodies were found dumped in different parts of his father’s rented panel beater workshop in Johannesburg in October 2022.
In a failed plea negotiation, Mkhwanazi admitted to killing the women but denied he raped them.
On Monday, his father, Mark Khumalo, told the court it took 40 minutes for the police to arrive after they were alerted to the discovery of a dead body at his workshop.
Khumalo had been called to the premises by caretaker Michael Damian, who is employed by Intercity Real Estate Management, after he was drawn to an unused room by a bad stench.
Damian testified as the state's first witness.
"When I opened the third door, that's when I realised that's where the smell is coming from. It was a bit dark because there was no electricity. That's when I saw there was something lying on the floor.
"I brought out my cell phone to use the light. That's when I realised there was a body," Damian told the court.
"DEAD CAT"
When on the stand, a blank-faced Khumalo barely looked at the accused, telling the court it was difficult to testify against his son.
Khumalo detailed more than one occasion when he became suspicious, including when he confronted the 22-year-old about a bad odour coming from one of the cars in the workshop.
"He told me that there was a cat under the car that had died, but he had cleaned it up.”
Mkhwanazi had offered the same explanation to the cleaner who saw him mopping the floor around the car.
Khumalo testified that he had also noticed that all three of the trolley bins at the workshop had gone missing, but when he asked his son Mkhwanazi said he would investigate only to return with a smaller bin.
In his admission, Mkhwanazi said he stuffed the lifeless body of his first known murder victim Chihora Nyarai into a black trolley bin.
All of Mkhwanazi's victims were Zimbabwean nationals. Three of the deceased remain unidentified, while two of the six women were pregnant at the time of their death.
The state is expected to call five witnesses to the stand.
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