Suspect placed at scene on day of ex-girlfriend’s murder
A Limpopo man who is on trial in the Polokwane High Court for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend was reportedly seen leaving the woman’s house on the day she was found murdered in her bedroom.
The suspect, Cuthbert Manamela, allegedly went to his ex-girlfriend Lebogang Lamola’s home in Seshego Zone 4 in 2017 and stabbed her to death before leaving the house. Lamola’s friend Evy Mokgehle told the court that the day the 23-year-old deceased was found, she saw Manamela leaving the house. “It was October 28 2017 and [I] was on my way to work in Polokwane. At that time I was going to catch a taxi when I saw Manamela leaving Lebo’s house.
His green Toyota Corolla was parked outside the gate. When he saw me he went back to lock the gate and drove off,” she said. Mokgehle said she was shocked by Manamela’s behaviour after he drove off without talking to her. “Since I knew him through my friend Lebo, we would frequently exchange greetings as and when we meet. Lebogang also told me that they had broken up and Manamela was threatening her,” she said. Mokgehle said Manamela was refusing to accept the break up.
Lamola’s mother Johanna said she had left her daughter sleeping when she went to work.
“I spoke to Lebogang in the morning around 6am but she was speaking from her bed. I locked the house and the gate because she had her own keys. “When I came back in the afternoon I went to her bedroom and found that she was now wearing a sleeping gown, and there was a shining object between her breast,” she said. The mother told the packed court that she thought the object was Lamola’s cellphone. “I called Lebogang five times and she didn’t respond. When I closely approached her bed I realised that it was a knife stuck in her chest. I tried to remove the knife but I couldn’t since it had penetrated deep in her body.
“Her body was placed in the middle of the bed and there was no sign of broken things in the room,” she said.
The mother said she also learnt after her daughter’s death that she had obtained a protection order against Manamela.
Prosecutor Eric Mabapa said Manamela robbed Lamola of her cellphone and house keys. The state further alleges that Manamela went to Lamola’s house and stabbed her to death
“The deceased and the accused were in a love relationship characterised by fights,” he said.