Judgment expected in trial of Joburg sex worker ‘serial killer’
Judgment is expected in the case of alleged serial killer Sifiso Mkhwanazi in the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge on Wednesday morning.
Mkhwanazi admitted to killing six sex workers and hiding their bodies in Johannesburg between April and October 2022
However, Mkhwanazi denies that he planned the murders or that he raped the women.
He successfully applied for a discharge on one count of rape from a 2021 case but he failed to shake off the six other counts of rape and the premeditated murder charges related to the 2022 discovery of the women’s decomposed bodies.
The state maintains it has proven that Mkhwanazi targeted his victims and sexually assaulted them before strangling and concealing their bodies around his father’s Joburg-based car repairs workshop.
Mkhwanazi advanced the defence that the killings were instinctive – and triggered by anger over an earlier false rape claim against him – after the women demanded more money for their services.
Mkhwanazi’s father was one of the state’s witnesses, and his testimony resulted in the confession the accused made to him being admitted as evidence following a trial-within-a-trial.
Three of Mkhwanazi’s alleged victims remain unidentified.
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