Cape Town - “This is the exact replica of my daughter; the eyes are just like hers.”
Bonita Lewis, mother of murdered Nikita Lewis, could barely hold back her emotions while looking at sketches done by her daughter’s killer, Nikita’s ex-boyfriend Lloyd Simbarashe.
Bonita was testifying in sentencing proceedings at the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
She was handed a small booklet made by Simbarashe titled 'Nobody knows my feelings' on the front page, with a sketch of Nikita on the inside pages next to the words of the Whitney Houston song I Will Always Love You.
Defence advocate Sheriff Mohamed said Simbarashe prayed daily for the Lewis family while in prison.
“He said if he does not get punished in this world, he definitely will be in the next,” said Mohamed.
The grieving mother replied that she harboured no ill-feelings towards Simbarashe.
“It is against the principle of my church to do so. I cannot say I love him, I cannot say I hate him. I just wanted him to be honest,” she said.
She told Simbarashe: “You said you loved Nikita, but yet you hurt her. How can you speak of love when you intended to hurt her, to hurt us. Why didn’t you just leave her?”
Lewis told the court Simbarashe had threatened Nikita on Facebook, urging her to surrender herself to him or he would hurt her.
“Don’t tell me about love; tell me you knew what you were doing when you hurt my daughter,” Bonita said.
Simbarashe was convicted of Nikita’s murder in December, last year. He had stabbed her 34 times.
At the time of her brutal murder, Nikita had been seeking refuge at the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children in Manenberg.
She had been living there for just over a month when Simbarashe tracked her down and killed her on October 9, 2015.
Simbarashe will be sentenced on Monday.
