‘Girl was handcuffed, raped and disembowelled’

Johannesburg - She was handcuffed, raped and disembowelled. Then her tiny body was burnt, wrapped in a dirty duvet and buried alongside decaying rats in a shallow grave at a dumping site.

On Tuesday, family and residents who had spent hours searching for Banele Precious Khumalo around Phumula Extension 21 near Spruitview in Ekurhuleni two years ago packed the Palmridge Magistrate’s Court as her alleged abductor appeared.

Cutting a lone figure in the dock of the Johannesburg High Court, sitting in the Alberton township, was Makananisa Norman Khanedzeni - the neighbour accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering the nine-year-old girl.

Lerato Thato told the court on Tuesday: “My cousin and I went to his place, and as we entered his room, he was carrying a screwdriver. He was acting very strange.

“I saw blood on the floor and on the fridge, and when I asked , he said it was blood that dripped from the meat in the freezer after he switched the fridge off. He was shaking and shivering, and told us to leave as he was tired and wanted to sleep.”

It was only when Banele’s body was found that the woman informed residents of the scratch marks she had seen on Khanedzeni’s face and neck.

Also, she had noticed that Khanedzeni was no longer wearing the clothes she had seen him wearing earlier.

Khanedzeni was at the dumping site when residents found the body, after Thato pointed out the scratch marks on his face and neck. At his home, they found items that linked him to the murder.

The trial continues.

omphitlhetse.mooki@inl.co.za

The Star