Zolile Khumalo’s alleged killer Thabani Mzolo appears in court ‘smiling’

A bizarre case involving apparent Facebook confessions and assault rifles has exploded in Durban.

Thabani Mzolo with late girlfriend Zolile Khumalo. Picture: Facebook

Students and staff at the Mangosuthu University of Technology were left reeling on Tuesday night after 21-year-old student Zolile Khumalo was shot and killed at the Lonsdale residence in Durban.

According to police, Zolile Khumalo, a first-year quantity surveying student, was shot dead by her 23-year-old boyfriend, Thabani Mzolo, who could not be named until he had appeared in court.

He did appear on Thursday, however, apparently with a smile on his face. Take a look at Facebook footage below, published by EWN.

It is suspected that her boyfriend, a former student aged 23, had her signed her into the residence by a current student, and he then shot Khumalo.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Thulani Zwane said the man was arrested at the scene.

The motive for the killing was not yet known, but police have described what happened prior to it as a “domestic quarrel”.

However, screenshots of her boyfriend allegedly confessing to the murder have emerged. Writing in isiZulu, he allegedly says he killed Khumalo and was apprehended by the police.

Bizarrely, in one such apparent written confession written on his Facebook page, he said that he wished he could resurrect her and apologise in person for killing her. But she was gone without having a chance to do so.

More disturbingly, strange images of Mzolo with guns – one of them an automatic assault rifle – have emerged.