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I hope they’ll do a better job in finding my daughter’s killer this time around: Poo’s mother

todayAugust 10, 2023 61

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Slain Bokgabo Poo’s mother, Tsholofelo, says she hopes that things will be done right this time around as the police have committed to prioritising investigations into her daughter’s brutal killing.

Gauteng Police Commissioner, Elias Mawela, says they will go back to the drawing board and relook the case.

His remarks come amid a public outcry hot over the acquittal of 28-year-old Ntokozo Zikhali, who had been charged with the four-year-old’s kidnapping, murder, violation of a corpse and defeating the ends of justice.

The High Court sitting in Benoni previously rejected Zikhali’s confession as not admissible, arguing that proper procedures were not followed when obtaining it. He claimed the police had assaulted him prior to making the statement.

Poo’s little body was found mutilated near an open veld in Watteville last year after Zikhali pointed out where her remains were buried.

CCTV footage obtained during investigations also showed the four-year-old walking next to Zikhali on the day of her disappearance.

The state, however, rejected that video footage evidence as not conclusive.

Mawela says they will prioritise this case.

“The unit which is investigating this case is the unit which normally achieves good convictions, they do extremely good work, we don’t know where did we go wrong on this one. But we will go back and debrief and check where we went wrong so that we fix what we have messed up and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he says.

Poo’s mother says they will allow the law to take its course and they hope that someday justice will be served.

“We will finally get to know what happened because there will be a new investigating officer that will be assigned to the case, we’ve got all the pros and cons of what could have happened. We expect that analyst experts could come and view the footage, place Ntokozo at the crime scene, and do proper procedures that Mbhele failed to do.”

Tsholofelo says they don’t have a choice, but to put their faith in the law once again.

“We hope that this time everything will go accordingly and we will be very hands-on when it comes to the details of the case from now on.”

The same man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for rape and kidnapping in another matter.

He pleaded guilty to raping a nine-year-old after picking her up while she played with her friend at a park in Tamboville in the East Rand.

The community of Wattville in Benoni staged a picket outside the court, where Zikhali was being sentenced.

Written by: Lindiwe Mpanza

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