Sakhile Mokoena

Sakhile Mokoena

A farmworker who told police that he killed his girlfriend because he thought she was a ghost appeared in court on Tuesday.

Excellent Nyalungu, 25, was not asked to plead in the White River magistrates' court in Mpumalanga on a charge of murder and the case was postponed to April 26.

He has been remanded in custody.

Nyalungu from Belfast Trust, on the border of the Kruger National Park, and his girlfriend Nelisa Makhubela, 25, from Oakley worked at a farm in Hazyview.

Constable Mpho Koli said the couple drank Spayon, a strong home-made drink that is sometimes called Pikiliyeza, together on Saturday night at the farm compound and slept together without any argument.

Early the next morning they decided to go home.

"The man led the way as they followed each other through the narrow path from the farm.

"The suspect claims that when he turned back to look at his girlfriend, she had turned into a ghost," Koli said.

"He told us that he went back to the farm and asked a security guard to shoot him and kill him.

"The guard called the police," Koli said.