A 38-YEAR-OLD farmworker described to the high court in Pietermaritzburg the chilling details of how he stabbed his girlfriend to death, dismembered her body and concealed the parts in a pit toilet and under his bed.
In a statement before Judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati yesterday, Zakhele Raymond Nkosi said he and his girlfriend, Sibongile Nzama had bought two-and-a-half cases of beer for R280 on Saturday, May 3.
They began consuming the alcohol from 4 pm that evening.
Between 8 pm and 9 pm they started arguing over money.
“I asked the deceased not to spend all the money but to keep some for bus fare. We continued to argue and a fight broke out between us. We were grabbing, hitting and punching each other during the fight.”
He said he grabbed a knife from the cupboard and stabbed Nzama with it. She said, “You killed me,” after which she fell down.
“I touched her and I noticed that she had died. I covered her with a blanket and I left, hoping that she would wake up.”
Nkosi said he eventually returned home — though he did not know the exact day or time.
Nzama was still lying in the same position on the floor next to the bed.
Fearing he would be arrested, he dismembered the body. He cut off the legs and disposed of them in a neighbour’s pit toilet.
Nkosi said he put the rest of the body into a bag and left it under the bed to be buried at a later stage.
Two days later — on May 5 — he told his mother and brother what he had done.
“I was planning to commit suicide that day, but my brother noticed the string from my pocket and removed it,” he said.
Nkosi said his mother advised him to go to the police and he had surrendered the same day.
The court will consider submissions on a suitable sentence by the state and defence today.
Judge Poyo-Dlwati indicated however that she intends to pass sentence next week.
