South African court acquits suspected child rapist and killer
By babagana jidda Kanempress
8th August 2023
A court in South Africa has found not guilty, a man accused of killing four-year-old Bokgabo Poo.
The little girl was last seen on CCTV footage, skipping alongside the man who was accused of promising her sweets if she agreed to accompany him to an unknown location.
The next day, a 63-year-old woman who was sweeping her yard found the leg of a child in a shallow grave, about 800m away, with more body parts seen.
Bokgabo Poo’s dismembered body was found with some body parts still missing, in two separate locations.
Judge Ian Cox ruled that the evidence of Mr Zikhali’s involvement in this pointing-out process was inadmissible.
Judge Cox found that though the accused’s rights were read out to him during his arrest, the police may not have adequately warned him that participating in a pointing-out process was not obligatory.
Ntokozo Zikhali pleaded not guilty to several charges including rape, mutilation of a body, defeating the ends of justice and violating a corpse.
The court acquitted Mr Zikhali due to insufficient evidence despite police authorities saying that the accused took officers to an open field where the girl was killed last October in Watville, a township east of Johannesburg.
The gruesome murder of the child generated protests in South Africa.
Mr Zikhali is also facing separate rape charges and is currently on trial for violating a nine-year-old girl who lives in the same neighbourhood.
