Cop describes how Khayelitsha teen’s naked body was stuffed into communal toilet
17 May 2017
Cape Town – A policewoman on Tuesday described the discovery of teenager Sinoxolo Mafevuka’s naked body in a communal toilet in Khayelitsha last year.
Constable Nomampondomise Gobodo, of Harare police station, was called as the State’s first witness, in the trial of two men who are cousins in the Western Cape High Court.
Xolisa and Athabile Mafilika had earlier pleaded not guilty to raping and strangling Mafevuka on March 2, 2016, and dumping her body in a communal ablution block in SST Block, Town Two.
During admissions, it was revealed that their fingerprints and DNA were excluded from those found at the scene.
Gobodo testified that she and a colleague were patrolling in Mandela Park when they received a complaint from the community.
They arrived at the toilets within 15 minutes, around 08:00, and found residents scattered.
An elderly man took them to the fourth or five cubicle next to the houses. She opened the closed but unlocked door.
“I saw a female person sitting on top of the toilet in the direction of the wall. Her upper body was bent over,” she said in Xhosa.
“She was undressed but a jersey was put on top of her. Her genitals were partly exposed.”
She saw something rolled at her waist and noted it was a skirt.
Gobodo asked residents to move away, marked the crime scene with tape, and requested a photographer, paramedics and investigator.
The photographer captured the scene and took the body out of the cubicle. Only then could paramedics confirm she had no signs of life and issue a death declaration.
“There was a bra and one flip-flop inside the toilet bowl. The second flip-flop was next to the bowl. There were glasses, either sunglasses or spectacles, behind the toilet bowl."
A top and hat were found in the cistern. Another top was found on the floor. A pair of female underwear was found on top of the cistern.
Gobodo's testimony would continue on Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning, Xolisa did not offer a plea explanation.
Athabile said he had an alibi defence, which was read out by his lawyer Shaid Bruinders.
"On the evening of the day in question, at approximately after 8pm, during Generations on the television, the accused was at the house of his aunt and that he was in the company of his cousin-brother. They were smoking while there," he said.
"He later went to his house where his girlfriend spent the night with him. He accordingly knows nothing about what happened to the deceased."
