Cape Town - The four convicted murderers of a Khayelitsha Site C young woman whose body was found in a disused drain in July are due to be sentenced on Monday.
Bongiwe Ninini was 20 when her semi-naked body was found with multiple wounds on the head, neck and back.
Pumulani Mnyewu, Masimthembe Solontsi, Melikhaya Mgushelo and Thabiso Balithoba, also from Khayelitsha, were found guilty of the murder.
The accused had been drinking alcohol with Ninini in Mnyewu’s room the night before her body was found. Mnyewu was her former boyfriend and she was known to all the accused. In their defence, the four men gave various versions of what led to her death but the court found them all liable for intentionally causing Ninini’s death.
They apparently beat her up until she was motionless before carrying her with a bed sheet to where her body was found the next morning.
A witness testified seeing someone being beaten up in the open field near the drain. The witness flagged a patrolling police van and led them to the crime scene.
Another witness, a relative of Mnyewu’s who lived on the same premises, testified that he had heard screams for help in the early hours of July 18 and was barred by Mnyewu from entering the room to help the screaming person.
He also told the court about blood he saw in Mnyewu’s room and seeing him cleaning it with water and a broom.
The four were arrested a week later after DNA analysis linked them to a spade used in the crime and a bed sheet found not far from her body.
In his judgment, delivered in December, Judge Mushtak Parker said Ninini had suffered severe bleeding from injuries to her head and neck. “The cause of death was determined to be multiple injuries, particularly injuries caused to the head and brain, as well as the neck area. In addition, the deep lacerations to the face were severe and contributed to the cause of the death,” he said.
“All the accused acted together as a group in attacking the deceased, assaulting her and inflicting fatal injuries,” the judge said, adding: “The inference is inescapable that all the accused acted with the clear intention to kill the deceased.”