#KaraboMokoena murder case set to reopen
Sandile Mantsoe (in white t-shirt, sitting in the dock in the Johannesburg High Court), who allegedly killed and set alight his girlfriend Karabo Mokoena. Picture: Lindi Masinga/ANA Sandile Mantsoe (in white t-shirt, sitting in the dock in the Johannesburg High Court), who allegedly killed and set alight his girlfriend Karabo Mokoena. Picture: Lindi Masinga/ANA
THE trial of Sandile Mantsoe, accused of killing his girlfriend Karabo Mokoena, resumes tomorrow after new evidence from two witnesses cast doubt over his claims that she had committed suicide.
Mantsoe, who has pleaded not guilty, had said in his statement to police that Mokoena was an aggressive person who had been suicidal and “addicted” to the high life.
Mantsoe had alleged that a security guard found pills on the floor of his one-bedroom apartment in Sandton, where he had lived with Mokoena.
Two security guards, however, who worked at the apartment where Mantsoe lived, took the stand on Thursday and disputed Mantsoe’s claims that they had found Mokoena on the floor with a box of pills and a suicide note.
One of the guards, Happy Maphiri, said that he had never entered Mantsoe’s apartment, while his colleague, Lucky Nongoko, said he had helped Mantsoe once, on March 16 last year. Mantsoe had at the time told Nongoko that he had been knocking for a while and that Karabo did not open the door. Mantsoe had claimed that Mokoena had locked herself inside and had refused to open.
“He (Mantsoe) came to me and reported that his girlfriend was inside the apartment and he has been knocking but the girlfriend is not opening so he does not know what is going on.
“From there we went to his apartment where I opened with my master key. When we entered Karabo was sleeping. She said sorry she was fast asleep. Then from there I left,” Nongoko told the court.
This evidence emerged as the State on Thursday wrapped up its case against Mantsoe, who stands accused of the murder of Mokoena, his girlfriend, in April last year. The case is being heard in the High Court in Joburg.
Earlier on Tuesday, the State opted not to show video footage of Mantsoe’s comings and goings from his Sandton Skye apartment.
The video would have also shown Karabo’s body being wheeled out in a dustbin.
State prosecutor Advocate Mike Hlatshwayo said the video was too long and offered screen grabs instead as evidence in the High Court, where the case was adjourned for the next day.
When it resumed, three witnesses took the stand. Among them was Colonel Andre de Klerk, together with his team who had accompanied Mantsoe to the crime scene.
De Klerk read out a statement he had taken from Mantsoe on May 11, last year - a day after his arrest, when he had said the tyre and acid he had used to burn Mokoena’s body had been fetched from a shed at his mother’s property. Mantsoe had allegedly said no one heard him enter and leave the property on that night.
He had also allegedly demonstrated to De Klerk and his team everything he did, including taking them to the garage where he had allegedly bought the petrol as well as the veld near Corlett Drive where the charred remains were discovered.
Mantsoe allegedly told them he had chosen that veld because he knew the area well. The statement was not disputed by his defence and it was accepted as evidence in the trial.
Mantsoe’s defence lawyer, Advocate Victor Simelane had asked for more time “to explore his options”.
The case resumes tomorrow.