Bokgabo Poo's alleged killer pleads not guilty but admits to earlier rape

The man accused of kidnapping, raping, killing and violating the corpse of four-year-old Bokgabo Poo in Wattville, Benoni, has pleaded not guilty. 

Ntokozo Zikhali is also charged with another crime stemming from August 2021 in which he is accused of raping a nine-year-old girl. 

The matters are to run concurrently. 

Zikhali was out on bail on the rape matter when he was arrested for the horrific murder of Bokgabo. 

In the case involving the nine-year-old, Zikhali, who had in a previous court sitting indicated that he would plead not guilty, entered a guilty plea instead as his trial got under way on Tuesday.

TimesLIVE understands that Zikhali has deposed a statement in which he admitted to having raped the nine-year-old but said he had nothing to do with Bokgabo's case.

Bokgabo's mother, Tsholofelo Poo, and the police were the first to be called to the stand.

Tsholofelo testified on how she realised that her daughter had gone missing in October 2022 and the process that followed in trying to find her. 

The girl's father, Irvin Ndlovu, said at the time they had learnt that a man had approached Bokgabo and her friend as they played at a park close to her home. The man allegedly offered them money for sweets but sent the boy to the shop alone. The boy went to the shop and returned to find Bokgabo gone from the park. 

The next day, a 63-year-old woman was sweeping her yard when she found the leg of a child in a shallow grave. About 800m away, more body parts were found in a section of open veld. 

Bokgabo's parents had gone to the scene to check whether the corpse was hers. They denied it was her, saying the body found appeared to have badly decomposed already. 

DNA tests later proved it was her. 

CCTV footage taken from a house near the park on the day of Bokgabo's disappearance showed Bokgabo merrily walking behind a man who was walking in great haste while apparently talking to her. Zikhali was believed to have been the man seen in the footage.

Taking to the stand, Tsholofelo sought to convince the court that in the footage where her child is seen walking close to Zikhali, there was indeed interaction between the two, contrary to what the defence was trying to prove.

She told the court that the nature of the video should not be confused for a lack of interaction and asked the defence to play the video in short and slow intervals to study the footage objectively.

The hearing continues.

TimesLIVE