Sifiso Mkhwanazi trial: Sex worker tells court of victim’s meeting with accused
The trial of alleged multiple murder and rape accused Sifiso Mkhwanazi continued on Tuesday with the cross-examination of a sex worker whose friend was among six victims.
The witness, a sex worker operating in the Johannesburg CBD, testified under the pseudonym 'Miss A' after the court ordered that her identity not be published.
Sifiso Mkhwanazi is accused of targeting Zimbabwean sex workers following the discovery of six partially decomposed bodies at his father's car repairs workshop in October 2022.
Mkhwanazi admitted to killing Chihota Nyarai, Patricia Magaiza, Joyce Moyo and three other women who remain unidentified.
On Monday, the Palm Ridge High Court heard that Moyo went missing after she was picked up by a man in a white van on the night of 2 October 2022.
A visibly shaken Miss A, who told the court she had been working along Goud Street for more than three years before the day in question, recalled her close brush with death the day she was summoned to the vehicle that eventually drove off with Moyo that evening.
"I stood up from where I was being called and walked to the motor vehicle where I was called over. When I got there, I stood at the door and didn't get inside. He didn't say a word but pointed to my friend - Joyce Moyo."
She said she could see Moyo speaking to the occupant of the car, but she couldn't hear what was being said.
Shortly afterwards, Moyo returned to fetch her bag and walked back to the car that had been waiting for her at the intersection.
"She [Moyo] got inside the car; it was Sunday, and that was the last day that I saw Joyce."
Miss A said a few days later, she received a call from a friend who wanted to know what car Moyo had left in because she was missing.
On Sunday, 9 October 2022, Miss A says she went to the crime scene after she bumped into a group of sex workers who told her about the discovery of six bodies at one of the factories in town.
Ms A says she didn’t attend the identity parade that was conducted after #SifisoMkhwanazi was arrested. She says while she may not be able to recognise the person who left with Joyce Moyo, because it was dark, she would be able to give a description.
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) February 12, 2024
There she was met by Moyo's sister, Grace, who told police that Miss A was the last person to see her sister alive.
Miss A testified that she was able to point out that the car in which Moyo left was one of those that was stored in the workshop.
Mkhwanazi admitted to strangling Joyce Moyo, before tying a cloth over her mouth, nose, and neck.
Her body was found in a transparent plastic bag -stashed behind scrap metal.
His father, Mark Khumalo, earlier testified that Mkhwanazi told him he was driven by vengeance after he was arrested in 2021 for what he says was a false rape claim against him.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
ALSO READ:
