4 appear for teen’s murder

BODY FOUND DUMPED IN PIT TOILET SQUATTER CAMP

A15-year-old teenage girl’s hands and feet were tied with wire and she had electrical wire and shoelaces around her neck when police found her decomposing body in a pit toilet in Brazzaville two years ago, the High Court in Pretoria heard yesterday.

Sergeant Lebohang Monareng was testifying in the trial of John Lekubu, 30, Tebogo Mabulana, 32, Lesole Mashao, 26, and Eugene Machete, 24, who pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, murdering and robbing Centurion teenager Kealebetse Seleka of her cellphone at the Brazzaville squatter camp in November 2016.

The sergeant, who was investigating Kealebetse’s disappearance, said Lekubu admitted that he had advertised himself as a “blesser” through Facebook and had invited the missing child to meet him.

Lekubu said his actual plan was to spend the night with her but when they met in Brazzaville, he realised his wife was there and abandoned his plan, whereafter three men took her. He had taken the child’s phone which she had dropped, he said.

Lekubu pointed out his three co-accused, who were sitting in front of a shack in Brazzaville, resulting in their arrest.

Monareng said he was on his way back to his car when Lekubu said he must go to a toilet behind the shack, where he would find the body.

The policeman had to crawl under a wire fence to get to the pit toilet, where he saw something resembling a human body in the dark hole.

He called the fire department because the body was too deep to reach. They eventually retrieved a body wrapped in black plastic.

From the smell and flies, it was clear that the body had already started to decompose.

Monareng said they did not unwrap the body, but he was present when a pathologist uncovered the body, which had been wrapped in curtains and black plastic.

Both of the victim’s hands were tied behind her back with wire. Her ankles were also tied with wire and there was plastic coated electrical wire and what looked like shoelaces around her neck.

The police officer denied Lekubu’s allegations that he was cuffed to a chair and assaulted while being questioned. He said Lekubu was definitely aware that the victim was a child, despite his denials.

The trial continues.