Durban - An 18-year-old man who was promised R2 million for the head of a white, Indian or coloured woman pleaded guilty in the Durban Regional Court on Thursday to killing and decapitating a prostitute.
Falakhe Khumalo's statement was read to the court, where he was ultimately sentenced by magistrate Andand Maharaj to life imprisonment for his role in the death of Desiree Murugan, whose headless body was found by municipal workers at Durban's Shallcross Stadium on August 18.
Khumalo said that in June last year his brother took him to see Sivonkaliso Mbili, a traditional healer on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, to be treated for a sexually transmitted disease.
It was during this consultation that Khumalo claims Mbili “made a proposal that we should get him a head of a female who is either white, Indian or coloured and he will give us R2 million each.”
In December when he had recovered from his sexually transmitted disease, Khumalo went back to Mbili, whom he calls Makhosi, to collect “muti” that would prevent the police from tracing him and his accomplices.
On the night of August 17, Khumalo said he and his three co-accused lured Murugan, 39, to the Shallcross Stadium in Chatsworth, Durban, where he paid her R100 for sex and oral sex.
“Whilst having sex, accused number one came behind me with an okapi knife and she saw him. I then placed my hand over her mouth so that she cannot make a noise. And I held her tight so that she does not move.”
Khumalo said the accused, who is a minor and may not be named, stabbed her several times.
Prosecutor Kuveshni Pillay told the court Murugan's headless body had a total of 195 stab wounds.
In his plea, Khumalo said they dragged the body to another part of the sports field.
“(Accused number one) took out the bush knife and started to chop the head off and then I took the second turn and chopped,” he said.
He and his co-accused then took the head to Mbili.
Khumalo said that when they entered Mbili's consulting room he came out with a bush knife, a shovel and two tins.
“He said I should cut off the deceased's eyelashes and I did. And then Makhosi (Mbili) dissected the head with the bush knife and took out the brain and the tongue and placed it in the two tins.”
Mbili ordered his assistant Vusumuzi Gumede, 30, to bury the tins behind his house.
Khumalo said he was arrested before he could return to collect his money.
Pillay said there could be no extenuating circumstances for a more lenient sentence than that of life.
“This is witchcraft. This is not traditional medicine,” said Pillay.
“This behaviour cannot be compared to animals, because animals do not behave in this way.”
She said that DNA evidence placed Khumalo at the crime and that ultimately he had no choice but to surrender himself to the police.
Murugan's younger sister, Jenette Murugan, told the court before sentencing: “We are bitter and angry. The maximum sentence should be enforced. It is the nature...the brutality thereof.”
She broke down in tears after explaining that her sister had hoped to be a fashion designer, but had become addicted to drugs while working at a hospital after her she and her husband had divorced.
It was this drug addiction that led to her elder sister becoming a sex worker.
“Irrespective of what my sister did, they had no right to do this. Nobody has the right to take a life, especially in this manner.”
The court had been scheduled to hear the pleas of the three minors - accused one, two and three - but they are now expected to appear in court on Friday.
Mbili and Gumede have not pleaded and their bail hearing is expected to be heard on September 22.
Sapa