Cape Town - Amid further denials by the alleged woman killer, his chilling confession about what led up to the death of a young mother from Strand was read out in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
The confession given by murder-accused Siyanbonga Mbotyi, 34, revealed that after he strangled his girlfriend, Nandipha Nthimkulu, he mutilated her genitals with a broken glass bottle and placed bits of her flesh in a chip packet.
The man appeared bewildered as he returned to court yesterday, where he took the stand in his defence just moments before his confession was read into the record.
According to the State’s case, Nthimkulu was killed on October 25, 2019, during an argument with Mbotyi.
The couple had just welcomed their newborn baby and Nthimkulu was at home being visited by Mbotyi’s sisters when he arrived there.
The State alleges that he became infuriated when he realised she had not made food for him.
In his confession, Mbotyi claimed he arrived home and asked Nthimkulu for food, but she was drunk.
He said he started shouting at her and questioned why she had not washed his clothes, and when she shouted back at him, he started strangling her. “I then started to punch her with my hand against her neck.
“While we were fighting, I choked her. While I was busy choking her, I put my girlfriend on the floor.”
He told police that in the struggle, Nthimkulu grabbed the blanket and the couple’s one-month-old baby fell off the bed, but not even this deterred him. “I choked her until she died,” he said.
In his confession, he went on to describe how he mutilated Nthimkulu.
Taking the stand, he denied the testimony by his sister, Nthombemb Wayiza, who told the court the next morning that he returned to the shack and could be seen with dry blood on his hands.
She further claimed that she saw her brother throw a chips packet on the roof of the shack, which was later found to be the packet used to carry the mutilated body parts.
Mbotyi denied being present on the night of the murder, saying instead he went to buy meat in Grabouw.
Closing his testimony, he told the court that he loved Nthimkulu.
“I love her, she is the mother of my child.”