The man who was acquitted of Bokgabo Poo’s murder, despite confessing to the crime last year, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnap and rape of a nine-year-old girl in 2021. Ntokozo Zikhali (28) from Brakpan, East of Johannesburg, was found guilty of the crime on Tuesday by the North Gauteng High Court sitting in Benoni.

NOT GUILTY

However, the same court found him not guilty on a charge of kidnapping, murder,and violation of the corpse of a four-year-old girl, Bokgabo Poo, as well as defeating the administration of justice. Zikhali was charged based on two case dockets, the first docket was of rape of a nine-year-old, where it was alleged that on 08 August 2021, the minor was playing with her friends in the park in Tamboville when he approached her, picked her up and took her to a dam, raped her and ran away. NPA Regional spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the allegation was that Zikhali pleaded not guilty to all other charges. Zikhali was linked to the offence through DNA evidence. He was arrested for the crime and released on bail. It was this time while he was on bail that he was accused of kidnap, killing, and violating the body of a four-year-old Bokgabo and burying her body parts in a shallow grave.

NEW INVESTIGATORS ASSIGNED TO BOKGABO’S CASE

Soon after Zikhali was acquitted, Bokgabo’s mother Tsholofelo Poo told the media that the family has received communication from the commissioner of police to say they will assign new people to investigate the case. "We are set to meet this afternoon to discuss what went wrong with investigating the case. I believe we will find justice for Bokgabo, we are prepared to fight," Poo said. Mahanjana said the state-led evidence of video footage shows the man and Bokgabo walking in close proximity to each other. "The state also relied on a confession and pointing out of the scene by the accused. The court found that the pointing out process was not procedural, as the accused person was not properly read his rights and therefore the judge ruled against the admissibility of that evidence," said Mahanjana. The investigator who took down the confession statement of the accused, testified in court that when the accused was making the statement he had bruises on his body and had told him that he was assaulted prior to making the statement. "The judge ruled against the admissibility of that evidence as it was taken as coercion. The state was left with video footage evidence which was found to be not conclusive and therefore was not proof beyond reasonable doubt against the accused. In such circumstances, where the evidence that the states rely on is inconclusive and thus ruled inadmissible, the only appropriate ruling by the court is acquittal. The state, therefore, accepts the court’s ruling, although it is understandable that it leaves the family and the community devastated that they did not get the closure and justice they hoped for," she said.