An East Rand church leader and his wife have been acquitted on charges of murdering a child.

Judge Piet Meyer said he found no evidence on the basis of which he could convict Monde Tokwe, 48, and his wife Nolufefe Magasane, 50, on charges of murder, mutilation and the acquisition, using and supplying of human tissue.

They applied to be discharged after the state had closed its case in the Johannesburg High Court sitting in the Randburg Magistrate's Court.

Tokwe, who is a pastor of the Eden Zionist Church in the Mandela Park informal settlement, near Katlehong, and Magasane joined their co-accused Fundisile Sidumo, an evangelist in the church, and Vusi Mofokeng, a traditional healer, who had already been discharged.

The State had alleged that Tokwe, worried about dwindling church membership, had consulted church elders about the situation.

Among the elders he allegedly consulted was Sidumo, who advised them to consult a sangoma, Mofokeng, who told them that the private parts of a young female were needed.

The body parts were allegedly to have been used on the church premises to boost the number of congregants.

Tokwe was said to have arranged to kill the 11-year-old Yolelwa Sikweyiya, previously reported as having been 9 years old when she was killed.

She was the daughter of his girlfriend, Noluthando Sikweyiya, also a member of the church.

After earlier remarking that the accused had confessed and pointed out the crime scene after their arrest, Meyer yesterday called these statements "on the face of it untrue in a material respect or respects".

- xabav@sowetan.co.za