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Man gets life sentence for raping minor days after being acquitted of Bokgabo Poo’s murder
The South African Police Service (Saps) will assign a new investigating team to look into Poo's murder.
Children with candles during a memorial service of 4-year-old Bokgabo Poo at the Wattville Day Care Centre in Wattville on 26 October 2022. Picture: Neil McCartney
Ntokozo Zikhali, the man who was recently acquitted in Bokgabo Poo‘s murder case, has been slapped with life imprisonment for raping a nine-year-old girl.
Zikhali appeared in the Gauteng High Court sitting in Benoni for his sentencing on Thursday after he was found guilty on the rape charge last week.
The suspect, through his lawyer, admitted to having raped the nine-year-old in August 2021.
According to his statement, the victim was playing with her friends at a park in Tamboville in Wattville, south of Benoni, when he approached her.
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Zikhali then picked her up and took her to a dam, where he raped her before running away.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) previously said Zikhali was linked to the offence through DNA evidence.
On Thursday, Judge Ian Cox handed down his judgment, giving Zikhali a life sentence which will see the convicted rapist serve a minimum of 25 years before becoming eligible for parole.
‘Inadmissible evidence’
The judgment comes a few days after Zikhali was found not guilty of Poo’s murder.
The suspect had been charged with kidnapping, murder, violation of a corpse and defeating the ends of justice.
He was out on bail when Poo was kidnapped from Masoleng Park in Wattville on 9 October 2022.
Her mutilated body was found in a shallow grave a day after she went missing.
Cox on Monday acquitted Zikhali of Poo’s murder on the basis there was no substantial evidence linking him to the crime.
READ MORE: Bokgabo Poo murder: ‘We still do not know where some body parts are’
The judge dismissed the state’s evidence of video footage showing Zikhali walking with the four-year-old on the day of her disappearance.
He also rejected the accused’s confession where he pointed out the scene where parts of Poo’s remains were found.
Cox deemed the confession “inadmissible” because Zikhali said he had been coerced into making the admission.
Zikhali claimed in court he was assaulted by police during his arrest so he, therefore, gave the police false addresses of his friends.
New investigating team
The South African Police Service (Saps) is set to assign a new investigating team to look into Poo’s murder.
“We’ve received communication from the commissioner of police to say they will assign new people to investigate the case.
“We are set to meet this afternoon to discuss what went wrong with the case in terms of investigating,” Poo’s mother Tsholofelo told reporters outside the court on Thursday.
Tsholofelo said she believed the initial investigating officer did a “poor job” in handling the case.
“With them now coming to the party and the noise everyone has been making, I believe we will find justice for Bokgabo, we are prepared to fight,” she said, although she said she was “a bit skeptical”.
‘Back to square one’
The Transformation Alliance (TTA) urged police to find Poo’s real killer because the suspect was “still out there posing a greater threat to more kids”.
The party, led by former ActionSA member Abel Tau, said it was disappointed Zikhali was acquitted.
“While we respect the judiciary and don’t want to cast aspersions, we are concerned the family is left with more questions than answers. We, therefore, call for Saps to find the real killers because it is a fact a murder was committed,” TTA national chairperson Tlhogi Moseki said in a statement.
“A family lost a child here, in a most painful and inhumane manner, and they cannot be expected to just move on and forget, in fact, this ruling might’ve opened a sore wound beginning to heal, and now they are back to square one.”
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