‘Unknown girl was also a victim’ says detective from Secunda FCS in case against alleged serial killer

Sergeant Hezekiel Malapela is convinced an unidentified girl who was found murdered and dumped in the street in Ext 17, eMbalenhle, was also a victim of the suspected serial killer, Themba Shongwe.

Malapela, a detective with the police’s Secunda-based Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) who is renowned for investigating serial offenders, spent two days on the witness stand last week.

Shongwe is on trial for the rape and murders of four more girls, Mihle Zingamo, Cynthia Masilela, Lerato Nkutha and Nokulunga Nkutha, between 2016 and 2018.

Malapela told the court on September 29 the young unidentified girl was buried as a pauper because no one ever claimed her remains.

“She was between 13 and 14 years old,” he said.

Malapela obtained a crime kit from Evander Hospital about her death which was then kept at the eMbalenhle Police Station.

He testified the crime kit was among the things stolen in a burglary at the police station.

Malapela told the court that the girl’s fingerprints were sent to the department of Home Affairs, he also went through the police station’s file for missing persons, and the girl’s information was circulated in local newspapers, but it yielded no results in finding out the girl’s identity.

He testified that after studying the case and the photo album, he believe the girl was murdered by the same person who killed the other four girls.

He said how her body was found and the postmortem results were the same as that of the other four dockets.

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He said the girl’s injuries were similar to those of the other four girls and how she was dumped, was also the same.

Malapela testified that this girl had also been redressed when her body was discovered. White foam was coming out of her nose.

“I decided to investigate this case separately and the inquest was registered at the Evander Magistrate’s Court,” he said.

Malapela then testified about his investigation into Mihle Zingano’s murder. Mihle was 14 years old. She was reported missing before her body was found dumped in the street in 2018.

“Residents alleged that the day Mihle went missing, the accused (Shongwe) borrowed a wheelbarrow from a resident.

“The wheelbarrow was taken to the forensic laboratory, and tests were conducted, but nothing was found,” said Malapela.

Malapela also told the court that the community of Ext 17 gathered and decided to search Shongwe’s house and other homes, but nothing was found.

The house of the accused was torched and the police’s K9 unit rushed to the scene where both the accused and his mother were rescued.

Shongwe was locked up in the police cells for his safety and his mother was taken to a place of safety.

“I swabbed the accused for DNA and registered it at eMbalenhle Police Station. It was then taken to the forensic laboratory for examination.

“The accused was also taken to Bethal Prison’s hospital for an examination and to check if he was not injured when the community torched his house”

Malapela said another victim survived and an identification parade was held, but the little girl was unable to point out Shongwe.

“The social worker’s report stated that, according to a report from the doctor, the victim’s thinking capacity was the same as that of a four-year-old,” said Malapela.

Malapela testified that Shongwe was released at that time and his cellphone was confiscated.

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

“I began with the case of Lerato Nkutha who was only 11 years old when she was murdered, followed by that of Nokulunga Nkutha and Synthia Masilela.”

Lerato and Nokulunga were cousins.

“All the deceased were residing at Ext 17. This shows they knew each other, their parents knew each other and they were staying near each other.

“All the victims were reported missing before they were found dead.

“We saw that from 2016 to 2018 a serial killer was able to choose who must be killed and that two young girls were killed each year using the same route,” Malapela said.

According to him, there were no power outages in eMbalenhle at the time the two murders were committed in 2018.

Malapela was using notes during his testimony. This caused a heated argument between Shongwe’s defence and the state prosecutor, Adv Tracey Keen-Horak.

Keen-Horak defended Malapela by saying the notes were taken from all the dockets’ content.

Regional Magistrate Graham Cupido ruled against the defence’s rejection of Malapela’s notes after Malapela told the court that he prepared the notes to refresh his memory about all the cases.

Cupido told the defence that they can ask the witness for a copy of his notes on which they can then cross-examine him. The trial was postponed to December 9 to 12 when Malapela will continue to testify.