Guilty of six murders
PANEL BEATER: RAPED AND KILLED SEX WORKERS NEAR JOBURG CBD
Judge says version is ‘beyond false’, finds accused acted with premeditation.
The High Court in Johannesburg has found panel beater rapist Sifiso Mkhwanazi guilty of killing six sex workers in April to October 2022. Handing down judgment, Judge Cassim Moosa said: “I reject the version of the accused as beyond false and find that the accused had acted with premeditation, planning and an informed intention to kill the deceased.
“Further, having due regard to the totality of the evidence before this court, and the necessary inferences that may be drawn therefrom, I find that the accused did unlawfully have sexual intercourse with all the deceased.
“I further find that the accused did unlawfully and intentionally defeat and obstruct the course of justice by concealing the bodies of the deceased and obstructed the administration of justice.”
Mkhwanazi was found guilty of rape, murder and obstructing the administration of justice.
Mkhwanazi, through his lawyer, admitted to killing the sex workers. However, he denied the rape charges against him and the assertion that the murders were premeditated.
Mkhwanazi was arrested in October 2022, after the discovery of the bodies of six Zimbabwean sex workers at his father’s panel beating workshop in Selby, Johannesburg.
Police were called to the building due to a foul smell that was emanating from one of the rooms.
One of the women is believed to have been fatally shot in the head, while the remaining five were allegedly choked to death.
According to the police, two of the victims were pregnant.
Mkhwanazi had previously been arrested for rape in June 2021, but the charge was later withdrawn.
During court proceedings, Mkhwanazi’s father, Mike Khumalo, described how the first body was discovered by Michael Kingsley Damien, who was responsible for maintenance at the workshop.
Damien testified he alerted the police about a foul smell coming from the building.
Khumalo revealed more bodies had been found following his son’s arrest on 9 October 2022.
Mkhwanazi had been seen by a security guard walking into the building with a woman on 2 October.
According to the father, the second body was found near a drain after the police gave him, Damien and security guards permission to clean the premises.
“We see the drainage is blocked, then he tried to unblock it... There is a box like a chimney that’s quite bigger, it was down there.
“On that box we saw some flies flying around, others are dead. Then we went to inspect what’s happening.
“On that side of that chimney, it’s got like squares when we look in there, we saw that there is a body, but we couldn’t see because the body was decaying, we could see the body of a human being.”
Following the discovery of the second body, Khumalo said a police official was alerted.
“He said ‘let me call the forensics people back’,” the witness continued.
They then searched the entire premises to see if there were more bodies.
One of the security guards noticed a third body under some plastic near a dustbin.
“I was still on this box chimney, then I realised that the dustbin was one of the three dustbins missing in the workshop.
“On his way to investigate the dustbin … he saw a white plastic, then he stopped on the plastic before the dustbin. Then we all came, we then realised in the plastic there was also a body,” Khumalo told the court.
The security guard opened a dustbin with a stick to find the fourth body.
Khumalo said they then noticed a scrap vehicle. There were dead flies on the driver’s side, but nothing else.
The back of the van was locked but they broke in using a hammer and chisel, Khumalo said.
“Behind the van there was a truck. We checked, and the front doors were open. Looking at the back of the truck, we noticed a small lock. We broke it open and saw another body, which was inside a dustbin,” Khumalo said.