The trial of an alleged serial killer, Themba Shongwe, who is accused of raping and murdering several young girls aged 11 to 16 in eMbalenhle outside Secunda between 2016 and 2018, is currently on the court roll at the Secunda Magistrate’s Court.

Four of of the girls have been identified as Mihle Zingamo (14), Cynthia Masilela, Lerato Nkutha (11) and Nokulunga Nkutha (11). The fifth alleged victim was buried as a pauper because no one claimed her remains.

Sergeant Hezekiel Malapela, a detective with the police’s Secunda-based Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) and who is renowned for investigating serial offenders, is currently under oath and testified about his investigation.

He told the court that after all the dockets were assigned to him, he called for an imbizo in Extension 17 to notify the community that he was taking over as the investigating officer assigned to all four cases of the murdered girls.

Malapela said that he is convinced an unidentified girl, who was found murdered and dumped in Extension 17, eMbalenhle, is one of Shongwe’s victims.

He told the court that after studying the case and the crime photo album, he believed the girl was murdered by the same person who killed the other four victims. The position her body was found in, the post-mortem results, her injuries and how she was dumped was similar to the other victims.

Malapela testified that, like with the other victims, the girl had been redressed when her body was discovered and there was white foam coming out of her nose.

He testified how he sent her fingerprints to the Department of Home Affairs, went through the police’s file for missing persons and circulated the girl’s information in local newspapers. None of it yielded any positive results to find out her identity.

A crime kit, obtained from the Evander Hospital after her death, was kept at the eMbalenhle Police Station and was among items stolen in a burglary.

Malapela said another victim survived an alleged attack by Shongwe and an identification parade was held, but the little girl was unable to identify him. A social worker’s report stated that a doctor found the victim’s mental capacity to be the same as that of a four-year-old child.

According to Malapela’s testimony, Shongwe was released at that time and his cellphone was confiscated. He was rearrested in January 2019 and has remained in custody since then. He pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and four of murder.

Malapela will continue with his testimony when the trial resumes in February.