Pretoria -
The DNA evidence linking him to the rape and subsequent killing of three Diepsloot children is wrong and it is just “my bad luck that witnesses are incriminating me in three murders I did not commit”.
This was the explanation of alleged Diepsloot serial child killer Ntokozo Radebe, who on Monday took the stand in the Gauteng Provincial Division of the High Court in Pretoria.
He is facing 12 charges following the abductions, rapes and subsequent deaths of Anelisa Mkhonto, 5, and cousins Yonelisa, 2 and Zandile Mali, 3.
Anelisa was the first to go missing on September 7 last year. Her body was found several days later next to a dustbin at a dumping site.
Her head was covered by a blue plastic bag and she was both anally and vaginally raped before she was strangled to death.
The Mali cousins went missing about a month later and they were raped in the same manner. Both were strangled to death by means of a wire coat hanger.
Radebe, in a confession to a magistrate, described how he tightened the ends of the hanger to ensure that the children were dead.
He also gave gruesome details of how he had raped and killed the cousins in his Diepsloot shack, before dumping their bodies in a communal toilet a few days later.
According to him, he first stuffed the bodies under his bed, but when the smell became unbearable, he placed Zandile’s body in a suitcase and Yonilisa’s in a bucket. He then dumped them in the toilet.
Radebe remained mum in his confession before a magistrate about the killing of Anelisa.
Two neighbours testified they saw him in the company of two small children on the day the cousins went missing.
DNA evidence sexually linked him to all three children. Yonelisa’s blood was also found on a shoe inside Radebe’s shack and both Anelisa and Zandile’s blood were found inside a suitcase found in his home.
But in taking the stand, Radebe on Monday denied he had anything to do with the death of the children.
He also denied that the shack identified as his, belonged to him. Radebe said he lived in Alexandra and he had no idea to whom the suitcase belonged.
He also denied he was ever seen in the company of the Mali cousins. “The community was upset about the children going missing and decided to lie about this.”
Asked by the State why he was singled out, Radebe said: “Maybe I have bad luck.”
Being confronted with the DNA evidence linking him to all three children, Radebe said: “That science is not correct… I think that science is still going to lead to innocent people going to jail.”
Questioned about his suitcase containing the blood of two of the victims, Radebe questioned whether the suitcase had his name on it. The State asked for a conviction on all 12 charges, saying that all fingers pointed at Radebe.
Judgment is due to be delivered on Tuesday.
Pretoria News