Mother tells of horror of seeing son murdered

attacked by a man who allegedly wanted to rape her, testified that she started vomiting and menstruated from shock after seeing her son being killed.

Segomotso Garesape yesterday concluded her testimony in the Northern Cape High Court during the murder trial of Tefelo Dikole.

Dikole is accused of murder and attempted rape following an incident which happened on August 12, 2016, where Kutlwano was killed while trying to fight off his mother’s alleged attacker.

Garesape told the court yesterday that “nothing felt right” after the attack.

“After the attack nothing felt right … I was vomiting and bleeding. I did not sustain any injuries but because I was so frightened, I just started menstruating,” said Garesape.

Garesape testified that in August 2016 she was taking her two sons to school when she was approached by the accused, who asked her for R2.

“After I told the accused that I did not have the money, he stood there and shook his head as he pulled his face tightly. I held my child’s hand tightly and walked off speedily. I wondered why he was doing that, but walked off fast with my two children.

“When the accused grabbed me from behind, I managed to hold onto his one hand, in which he had a broken bottle. When he realised that I was going to overpower him, he pulled my skirt up with his other hand. It was then that I saw that he had a plan,” she said.

Garesape told the court that she believed that the accused had not targeted her children.

“The accused did not plan to attack my children. I know he wanted to harm me. I was the target,” she said.

During cross-examination by the defence on her certainty of the identity of the accused, Garesape told the court that she was certain it was Dikole who had killed her son as she had seen him on different occasions prior to the incident.

“I had seen the accused before. I did not know his name at the time … I had seen him before when he asked for food when I was working at the school. He was standing outside the school premises and I was standing in the kitchen door of the school.

“There was also a time when some educators and myself were waiting for the bus and he walked past us.”

Garesape was employed as a cook at Tau Diarora School in Jan Kempdorp where her two children attended school.

Another State witness, Abraham Radebe, told the court yesterday that he had also clearly seen Dikole and had chased him after he had attacked Garesape.

Radebe said that he and four of his workers were alerted about the incident after a young boy came crying to them.

“This young child came to us as we were loading things to use in the field. He was crying and repeatedly said ‘he killed him … he killed him’. I could not hear who was killed but we told the child to go show the young men with me what was happening,” said Radebe.

“They ran off and I got into my car and followed them. I met them along the way and they got into the car and we drove to the scene. We saw a young child sitting on the left side of the railway line and on the right-hand side a tall man stood up and walked away.”

Radebe also identified the man at the scene as Dikole, whom he said later ran off when he saw the vehicle approaching.

“I stopped my car and saw the man run off when he saw the car stopping. I told the young men to chase him. When I got closer to the child on the railway line, I saw that his intestines were outside of his body.”

Radebe said that he had jumped back into his car and rushed to get help for the child.

He said that his attempts to stop a police van, which was on its way to Jan Kempdorp, were unsuccessful. He said that he eventually received help from detectives in town and reported the matter.

“I wanted to drive to the police station but managed to get hold of a detective van and stopped them. They followed me to the scene. Upon arriving at the scene, we found the mother of the child. I could observe that the child had already died when we got to the scene.”

Radebe stated that he was positive that it was Dikole who had killed Kutlwano, as the accused had looked in their direction when they arrived at the scene.

The matter was postponed in order for Dikole to consult with a doctor as he indicated to the court that he was feeling sickly.

The court reluctantly granted the postponement, stating that it would be the second consultation as a previous medical practitioner had indicated that the accused was in good health.