Tying, gagging, hiding– State maintains ‘trend’ confirms Mkhwanazi planned killings

*Please note this article contains details of sexual violence, which some might find upsetting 

The State previously brought visual evidence, presented in a 200-page photo album, showing how the bodies of the six sex workers were concealed in various parts of the building yard when they were discovered in October 2022. 

Mkhwanazi admitted to killing the six women between April and October 2022 and hiding their bodies in different parts of his father’s panel beaters workshop but denies that he targeted them or that he raped them.  

The trial sought to determine his liability on the state’s allegation of six counts of premeditated murder, seven counts of rape, one count of robbery under aggravating circumstances and one of obstructing the administration of justice.   

READ: Court grants Mkhwanazi discharge on 1 of 7 rape counts

The State led evidence that all the victims were found with their hands and legs bound with rope, while some were also gagged.

In his closing arguments on Wednesday, Prosecutor Leswikane Mashabela stood by the state’s case that Mkhwanazi had restrained the women so he could repeatedly force himself onto them before killing them.

Mashabela again rejected the accused’s insistence that the murders were instinctive and that sex between him and the deceased was consensual, adding that the state had proven this beyond the confession Mkhwanazi made to his father.

“The modus operandi. The court can still say this was planning or premeditated murders because it doesn’t make sense that an accused would kill six people on different days. Similarly, where they are tied on the hands, legs, and mouth; and still claim that that was not planning.

“If that was not planning, what led him not to stop? If we give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a mistake with the first or second deceased person. All these six people are raising the same issue of increasing the price.

 "Do you still go to a third, fourth and fifth – and the method of killing is similar?"

READ MORE: ‘Serial killer’ Mkhwanazi’s confession admitted as evidence

Judge Cassim Moosa revealed that at least three of the six victims appear to have died with the legs spread open. One victim was covered in a duvet, while another had her mouth covered with a cargo strap – some of these materials that are not ordinarily found in a place of business.

“In the photograph album, you can see the deceased persons bound extensively, gagged, and the rest of the body is bound. That is a similar trend that runs through each and every one. 

“Do I understand the state to argue that the court must find planning and premeditation because, for want of a better description, the accused had refined his art? That for each of his victims this was what they call his SOP – standard operating procedure?”

Mashabela agreed.

At the same time, in his admission, Mkhwanazi said he placed the body of Patricia Magaiza in a drum full of old oil before removing it because it didn’t fit.

Judge Moosa described the state of Magaiza’s body.

 “It is clear from the observation of the photographs that were taken and the postmortem examination that one of the deceased was, after being strangled and killed, thrown into a huge container of full of motor vehicle oil and, it would appear from the reading of the postmortem, that the upper body was set alight. When the body was found it was still covered in motor oil and you could see the burnt part of the upper torso.”

 Mkhwanazi’s lawyer, Vuyo Maqetuka, stood by his client’s defence that the murders were instinctive acts of fear and rage that were triggered by the sex workers demanding more money for their services.

READ MORE: Mkhwanazi sex worker murder trial hears of extortion, fear, remorse

Maqetuka told the court that the altercation between the accused and his alleged victims was due to Mkhwanazi not using a condom.

This is despite evidence by the investigating that multiple condoms were found at the scene.

NO CHARGES FOR DECEASED FOETUS 

Early in the case, it was revealed that two of the women were pregnant when they were killed.

Judge Moosa confirmed that, according to the evidence before the court, one of the women was 26-29 weeks pregnant. But the state on Wednesday the state explained that it did not pursue charges for the deceased foetus in line with the nasciturus fiction principle.

“The person must have been born alive before one can consider him a person. That is the position in law. So, the person was not yet born, and we don’t know whether when the mother was killed, he was alive, so we could not speculate about that person, and that is why we could not charge.”

Mashabela said another reason was the accused’s silence on the matter, which did not help the state in determining whether he was aware that the victim was pregnant.

The case returns to court on 13 March.

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