Student on necrophilia charge
2004-08-12 18:09
Jabu Mhlabane
Witbank - An engineering student accused of raping and killing a girl and keeping her body in his bed for three days will appear in the Witbank district court on Friday.
When he appeared in court in March this year, Themba Mthombeni, 21, of Mhluzi near Middelburg in Mpumalanga was not asked to plead to charges of murder, rape, necrophilia, attempted murder, possession of unlicensed firearm and possession of ammunition.
Mthombeni registered for his third year at Technikon Pretoria's Witbank in January last year and, on April 29, went to visit first-year student Thandiwe Masimula, 18, who lived in the same block of flats with a flatmate.
He asked to speak to her outside and that was the last time anyone saw her.
Three days later her badly decaying body was found in Mthombeni's flat.
She had been raped and shot in the neck.
Mthombeni is also accused of returning to Masimula's flat and trying to rape her flatmate, whose screams alerted a neighbour.
Sprayed with mace
Mthombeni ran away and was confronted by two teachers from Witbank high school who were walking in the street at the time.
He allegedly aimed a gun at them, but they sprayed him with mace, causing him to fall to the ground.
They alerted police, but by the time police arrived, Mthombeni had recovered and fled.
Masimula's flatmate saw him three days later in Mhluzi and he was arrested on May 1 last year.
On May 2, he allegedly led police to her body where it had decayed badly in his flat.
Mthombeni said in court that he had sex with Masimula's corpse.
Convicted killer
In November last year the Pretoria High Court sentenced Mthombeni to five years for killing Zonkezile Jara who worked in the national police commissioner's office in Pretoria.
Mthombeni said he'd been defending himself when he stabbed Jara, and accused Jara of trying to rape him.
He pleaded guilty, however, on charges of stealing Jara's car, firearm, money and cellphone.
Mthombeni was doing his third year when he met Jara at a bar in July 2002 shortly after his flatmate kicked him out of their Sunnyside flat for not paying rent.
Jara offered him a place to stay for the night, but was stabbed several times in his flat later that night.
Three days later, Mthombeni handed himself over to the police.
- African Eye