‘I couldn’t believe he’d been freed’
Suspect accused of raping and killing fouryear-old girl was out on bail on another child-rape charge
When Bulelwa Manzini* saw the grainy CCTV footage of four-year-old Bokgabo Poo happily skipping down a road next to the man who is believed to have later raped, murdered and dismembered her, a chill came over her.
The footage had been shared on social media and she immediately recognised the suspect as a man who had been arrested several months previously for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl in her area.
“It was the same man. I am 100% sure. I couldn’t believe he was free again and back to harming little children.”
Ntokozo Khulekani Zikhali has been charged with the rape and murder of Bokgabo, who he allegedly lured away from a park where she was playing with a friend with promises of sweets. Bokgabo was reported missing on October 10. Zikhali was arrested days later and appeared in the Benoni magistrate’s court on October 17.
It emerged in court this week that at the time of the murder, Zikhali was on bail for raping a nine-year-old girl in the same area.
Recounting the first time she had seen Zikhali, Manzini, an education activist from Wattville in Benoni, told the Sunday Times she had witnessed his first arrest.
“It was a Sunday. I am unsure about the exact date. My sister and I were chilling at home when suddenly a man, chased by another man, came running down the street.” The first man ran into a property to hide. “I asked the other man what was wrong, and he told me ‘that man has just raped my child’.”
Then the owner of the house came out. The suspect jumped over a wall and ran.
“While he was running, the mother and the victim came to me. The little girl was crying. The mom asked me to take her daughter to my home and call the police.
“The mother was so angry she chased him barefoot. She was the one who caught up to him first. She grabbed him by the hand and other community members then also caught up.”
Manzini took the child to her own mother’s house.
“The child was crying. She said: ‘The man gave me sweets and then he took me to the dam and took my dress off. Then he did things to me.’ The way she described his actions, it was clear he raped her,” Manzini said.
They called the Actonville police.
“They were there within 20 minutes. They took the little girl and her parents as well as the suspect away. The next day I saw the girl’s father in town and he told me the man was locked up.”
Activists this week have blasted the legal system for allowing people charged with raping and murdering women and children to be granted bail.
Neither police nor the National Prosecuting Authority could this week give any insight into why Zikhali had been given bail following his arrest for the rape of the nineyear-old girl.
NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke said: “Unfortunately I am not able to assist in any way at this point. These are matters in the regions. Will have to follow up with them.”
Bokgabo’s mother, Tsholofelo Poo, told the Sunday Times she knew abut the previous allegation of rape against Zikhali.
“The family of the other little girl must be in a terrible place. They will be reliving their own horrible experience every step of our journey with this case.
“This past week has been very tough. There have been so many community people, politicians and media coming in. It is difficult to find a space where I can just scream,” said Poo.
“My little baby is gone. Taken from me. And in her place there is this hype and all these strangers. In our culture we need a period of mourning when a loved one dies. That too was taken from us.
“I am not unthankful. It is reassuring in a way to see how our entire nation is grieving for my daughter.
“Bokgabo was such a happily loud and bubbly little person. But that is nothing compared to the noise she is now making after having been taken from us. She is roaring with anger through the mouths of an entire nation.”
Asked about Zikhali, her anger is suddenly visible.
“He took my child’s little 20kg body and did terrible things to it. What kind of a person mutilates a baby?”
She says Zikhali has admitted taking her daughter but still denies the rape and murder charges. “He claims he left her alive and covered with a blanket behind Makro, near Heidelberg road.”
She said the entire Wattville community had been abandoned by the government.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen to big shots. Their children have nannies to watch over them and theme parks to play in, while we haven’t had electricity for the past three years.
“If there was electricity, my child could’ve been watching TV that day and none of this would have happened.”
She said service delivery in the area was “non-existent”.
“When we see a police van in our streets we know they are on the way to buy takeaways.”
Anglican priest Themba Seya, who runs the Father Themba Seya Foundation, is assisting the family in their grief.
“We are a forgotten community. It is ironic that one of South Africa’s greatest men, Oliver Tambo, lived here and is buried here.”
He said the lack of policing in Wattville was not a new issue.
“In court on Monday I was shocked to see how many police officers we have in this city. But then I realised they were there to protect him, not us.”
Jessy Naicker, deputy chair of Sector 4 Brakpan community policing forum, accompanied the Sunday Times on Friday to the sites where some of Bokgabo’s body parts were found.
“At this house we found her left leg partially buried. It is a very busy street with two taverns. I don’t know how it was buried here unseen.”
A couple of hundred metres away, in an empty field strewn with litter, her torso and head were found.
“Her head was badly burnt and he had poured some kind of chemical on her, which took her eyes,” Naicker said.
“Her right leg, right arm and lower right part of her torso are still missing.”
Asked about the community’s complaints about SAPS service delivery, Gauteng police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Sello said: “Anyone who is not happy about service delivery from SAPS is urged to contact the service complaints centre.”
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This kind of thing doesn’t happen to big shots. Their children have nannies to watch over them and theme parks to play in, while we haven’t had electricity for the past three years Tsholofelo Poo mother of murdered Bokgabo