Body used for muti, court told

2010-02-18 21:30

Ramsgate - The body parts of a victim of a serial killer were removed and used for muti, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court heard on Thursday.

The court heard evidence that serial killer accused Thozamile Taki had allegedly told police investigators he had killed a man and taken his body parts to a traditional healer.

Spokesperson Zenzele Khumalo described how Taki pointed out the scene of this alleged crime in Port St Jones in the Eastern Cape on October 4 2007.

Khumalo said Taki had taken him and his two colleagues to a cliff from which he said he had allegedly thrown the three.

No bodies were found where Taki said he had dumped them, Khumalo said.

“He told us that another body had been buried in a shallow grave near the cliff. We checked, but nothing was found,” said Khumalo.
A list of 15 people Taki had allegedly killed was presented to the court on Thursday.

The names of two of the people whom Taki told Khumalo he had killed in Port St Jones were on that list.

List

Spokesperson Msizi Nyuswa told the court that Taki had voluntarily drawn up the list which also detailed where he had fetched the victims from before they were killed.

The list also contained names of two women Taki allegedly said narrowly escaped being killed by him.

They were Hleliphi Mnyamane and a woman only identified as Nokwezi from Durban’s Lamontville township.

Nokwezi had survived because she did not have money when she met Taki in Durban.

Nyuswa told the court that Taki had asked him to give him a pen and paper and had started compiling names without being forced.

He said Taki had told him verbally he had killed all 15 people on the list.

Taki’s lawyer Thulani Shange questioned why his client was not asked to write down what had happened to the people on the list.

Shallow grave

“I did not ask him to write it down. He only said it verbally after he had finished compiling the list and I wrote it in my own statement,” said Khumalo.

Shange said his client would deny having said he had killed the people on the list.

Giving more information on what happened during the pointing out in Port St Jones, Khumalo said Taki had told the police officers he was with his friend Kokoveyile Dikela when they buried the body in a shallow grave.

Dikela died after a long illness before the start of the trial.

It was not known whether the traditional healer to whom Taki said had allegedly given the body parts would be called to testify.
Judge King Ndlovu asked for his name not to be published.

Taki, who was arrested in September 2007, is accused of killing 13 women and dumping their bodies in sugarcane plantations in Umzinto, KwaZulu-Natal, and tea plantations in Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape.

He also faced 13 counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Taki’s girlfriend Hlengiwe Nene was charged as an accessory to the 13 robberies.

- SAPA