He ‘tightened his hands’ around woman’s neck to stop her telling her counsellor
THE NATAL WITNESS, LOCAL & NATIONAL, 12-08-2003
SHARIKA REGCHAND
Court
A 25YEAR-OID man yesterday told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that after having sex with Khanyisile Cebekhulu at a Kranskop mission he “tightened is hands” around her neck to prevent her confessing to her counsellor.
Nkosingiphile Mchunu said Cebekhulu “fainted” as he strangeld her. It was not a faint, however Cebekhulu died. Mchunu is now charged with raping and murdering Cebekhulu on January 15 last year at the Kwasizabantu Mission in Kranskop. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Mchunu said Cebekhulu wanted to confess to spiritual counselor that she had forbidden sex with him. He said he tried to dissuade her and then grabbed her neck until she became motionless. “I did not think that she died I thought that she fainted. I let her lie on the floor and left”, he added.
State advocate Deleen Barnard said both Cebekhulu and Mchunu lived at the mission where sexual relations were forbidden and men and women lived in separate residences. Barnard said she will lead evidence of doctors, a spiritual counsellor to whom Mchunu confessed as well as a postmortem result which shows Cebekhulu suffered vaginal injuries.
Barnard alleges that Mchunu raped Cebekhulu and while he was raping her, she cried out. After the rape she told him she would raise the alarm and report him to mission authorities. Mchunu tried to dissuade her but no avail. He became angry and in order to silence her, he throttled her to death, Barnard said.