Evidence shows that the murder suspect, Bafana Mahungela followed Kirsten Kluyts from her home before she was murdered, but #Bafana denied stalking her, he says his only crime was stealing her clothes and wearing her T-shirt, which he later discarded in a drain.
A cell phone location has revealed that the murder suspect was in George Lea Park the morning Kirsten Kluyts was murdered and raped. The murder suspect was at the Park location on October 29, 2023, at 7:35 a.m., according to evidence the State presented in the Magistrate’s Court.
The evidence was presented on Tuesday during the bail hearing for the 21-year-old student who is charged with the teacher’s death in Sandton.
The accused says he arrived at the location after 9am, however this evidence refutes his account of events.
On October 29, at the George Lea Recreational Park in Parkmore, Kluyts, 34, a teacher at Delta Park High, was discovered dead from a gunshot wound. On the day of her murder, she had entered and failed to complete an athletic event.
The accused is also seen entering the park in black T-shirt and trousers on that day’s CCTV footage. He was seen trailing Kluyts by about 100 yards. He denied, nevertheless, stalking Kluyts.
Rather, he claimed that the CCTV footage of him was recorded at a separate time than the one Kluyts was being photographed.
The murder suspect denied any role in her death when he took the stand to defend his bail-granting status.
In his testimony, he claimed that after discovering a woman was dead, he stripped her naked since he had touched her and did not want his DNA or fingerprints to connect him to the crime. He had saw the woman lying next to a path and had intended to offer to help.
He said his only crime was stealing her clothes and wearing her T-shirt. He later discarded her clothes in a drain.
When asked by the State why he didn’t call the SAPS anonymously, the accused said: “I didn’t want to be involved with police,” adding that he was unfamiliar with the procedure.
“What if they ask me to come to the police station?”
He also told the court that five days after seeing Kluyt’s body, he had told the caretaker, his father, and his girlfriend.
He said he should rather be facing charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice.
“It doesn’t make sense why you guys don’t want to give me bail because after the crime was committed, I was still in Parkmore for four weeks up until you got me on the 26th. If I wanted to run, I would have …”
