Pretoria - Diepsloot resident Ntokozo Radebe was linked by DNA evidence found on bloody suitcases to three children who went missing and were later found dead in the area last year.
Radebe, 28, insists he is not the abductor, rapist or killer of Anelisa Mkhonto, 5, nor of cousins Yonelisa, 2, and Zandile Mali, 3.
But evidence presented to the Gauteng Provincial Division of the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, proved that he was linked via DNA to the children.
Traces of blood of all three children were on two suitcases inside his Diepsloot shack. The cousins were also linked to him via their blood found on a pillowcase and a sheet found in his home.
Little Yonelisa’s blood was found on a shoe which apparently belonged to Radebe and he was linked, via DNA, to swabs taken from the two children’s genitals and other body parts.
Radebe could not be sexually linked to Anelisa, but forensics expert Captain CP Mitchell said this could be because her body was exposed to the elements before she was found.
Anelisa was the first of the children to go missing on September 7 last year, while playing in the street outside her grandparents’ home.
It is claimed that Radebe took her to his home where he penetrated her. He then allegedly strangled her to death, before dumping her body next to dustbins and covered her head with a plastic bag.
The community and the police were frantically searching for her until refuse removal workers discovered her body a few days later.
Barely a month later, the two cousins went missing. The youngest, Yonelisa, was dressed in a nappy and T-shirt, while her cousin wore a denim skirt and white T-shirt.
When the bodies of the children were discovered a few days later, dumped in a public toilet in Diepsloot, they were naked from the waist down. The pair had also been raped and strangled.
Radebe accused two community members, through his advocate, of lying after they testified they saw him in the presence of two little girls on the day the cousins went missing. The witnesses explained how he bought them each a lollipop at a shop in Diepsloot, and left with them. But Radebe said he wasn’t in the presence of children that day and the witnesses were telling lies.
It also emerged that he had made a confession before a magistrate relating to the three killings. Radebe claimed he was told by the police what to tell the magistrate.
According to him, the police assaulted and tortured him before taking him to the magistrate to make a “confession”. He said he was terrified and told the magistrate what the police had told him to say.
But magistrate Karel Kruger said Radebe didn’t mention that he was assaulted or tortured, or that he was being forced to confess.
“He in fact seemed extremely relaxed and we even had a cold drink together,” he said.
Kruger testified that Radebe had no visible marks on him, apart from two old scars. One was where he had been stabbed on the lip some time ago and another on his forehead from being attacked with a bottle.
Asked by the magistrate why he was there, Radebe said: “I told the police I know things about this matter (the death of the three children) and I know what happened.” Radebe told the magistrate that the police then said he had to tell his story to him ( the magistrate).
According to Kruger, Radebe, without any hesitation, told him the whole story in detail.
Several policemen were called during the trial-within-a trial on Thursday to determine whether Radebe was indeed tortured as he claimed. They denied this and the station commander of Diepsloot police station said he even had to call for an armoured vehicle to fetch Radebe, as the community were calling for his blood.
Radebe had to be “whisked” away to Central police station in Pretoria for his own safety.
Pretoria News