Durban — Two men have appeared in separate courts on femicide charges.
One of them is accused of burying his girlfriend’s body in a ditch after stabbing her to death while the other allegedly pounded his former girlfriend to death with a hammer.
They respectively appeared in the Pinetown and Chatsworth magistrate’s courts on Friday.
Ntokozo Brian Khumalo, 33, who has been an awaiting-trial prisoner at Westville Prison for five months after foregoing bail, is charged with the murder of 27-year-old Lindokuhle Mbhele.
It emerged in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court, where the matter is being heard, that the case might be transferred to the Durban High Court.
The State said Khumalo killed Mbhele by stabbing her on August 31 last year. Mbhele’s decomposing body was found in a ditch near the yard of Khumalo’s neighbour a few days later, on September 2.
This was after he had allegedly phoned the neighbour and told him that he had killed Mbhele and dumped her body in a ditch near his yard.
At this stage, Khumalo was no longer in the area of Tshelimnyama, where he had been living with his brother.
According to Mbhele’s family, she had left their Tshelimnyama home on August 31 to go to Khumalo’s house in the same area to take medication to him.
The family were expecting her home in the afternoon as she had told them that she was coming back home and would not sleep over at his house.
However, she did not return.
When Mbhele’s family contacted Khumalo later that evening, asking about her whereabouts, he told them that he did not know where she was.
The family said that on that evening he came to the Mbhele home and suggested they go to the police as he was also worried about her.
That was the last time the family saw Khumalo until he made his first court appearance on September 6.
Meanwhile, the Chatsworth magistrate’s court adjourned the murder hearing of 35-year-old Sugandran Rodney Naicker to April for further investigation.
Naicker is accused of killing 35-year-old Vyaksha Sookdew.
He also remains behind bars after he was denied bail last month.
Naicker is alleged to have killed Sookdew on December 21.
Her body was found after the accused led police to it three days later when he was arrested for leaving a petrol station after not paying for fuel. Upon his arrest, he allegedly confessed to killing Sookdew.
The men’s appearances came a day after KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said that discussions around femicide and gender-based violence (GBV) were to be a part of the recent two-day provincial executive council lekgotla.
“GBV is still seen as another pandemic that we are facing. We want to pay specific attention to ending gender-based violence and femicide because it is shameful that in this day and age we are still talking about GBV,” Dube-Ncube said.
Sunday Tribune