Frank Maponya and Victor Hlungwani
Frank Maponya and Victor Hlungwani
Police have successfully applied for bail to be denied to a man accused of killing a young woman for muti.
Javis Machava, 26, from a village in Limpopo, has been remanded until his next court appearance on October 14.
His arrest follows the gruesome murder of a 20-year-old woman who was found with her body parts missing.
The incident happened last Friday at Gandlanani village near Giyani.
The dead woman, Mkateko Rikhotso, was found in a street in the village. Her breasts were missing and her intestines were hanging out of her stomach.
Police spokesman Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe said yesterday that police were happy to have successfully opposed bail for the suspect in order tor conduct further investigations.
Ngoepe said: "We have learnt that there were other pending cases against the suspect and we want to investigate the recent case without any disturbance, that is why we opposed bail being granted."
Ngoepe said they were confident and positive that they had arrested the right suspect because Machava had been "positively identified" as the culprit in the ritual murder of the young woman.
The postmortem results were, however, still pending, Ngoepe said.
"We are still busy investigating many things around the life of the suspect, including his background," said Ngoepe.
Meanwhile, the family of the victim have blamed the police for not having taken action against the suspect earlier.
The victim's uncle, Wright N'wa Makena, said the suspect and the victim were in a relationship before Rikhotso was killed.
He said that prior to the killing, the suspect had stabbed his niece on two previous occasions and the matter was referred to the police.
He said the police had taken no action.
According to N'wa Makena, Machava had stabbed his niece last year during an argumentbetween them.
He said the suspect was arrested, but released a few days later.
N'wa Makena alleged that Machava had also stabbed Rikhotso earlier this year "and police did nothing about it".
N'wa Makena asked: "Her parents are both unemployed so who is going to take responsibility to bury her?"
no bail for mutiman
Frank Maponya and Victor Hlungwani
Frank Maponya and Victor Hlungwani
Police have successfully applied for bail to be denied to a man accused of killing a young woman for muti.
Javis Machava, 26, from a village in Limpopo, has been remanded until his next court appearance on October 14.
His arrest follows the gruesome murder of a 20-year-old woman who was found with her body parts missing.
The incident happened last Friday at Gandlanani village near Giyani.
The dead woman, Mkateko Rikhotso, was found in a street in the village. Her breasts were missing and her intestines were hanging out of her stomach.
Police spokesman Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe said yesterday that police were happy to have successfully opposed bail for the suspect in order tor conduct further investigations.
Ngoepe said: "We have learnt that there were other pending cases against the suspect and we want to investigate the recent case without any disturbance, that is why we opposed bail being granted."
Ngoepe said they were confident and positive that they had arrested the right suspect because Machava had been "positively identified" as the culprit in the ritual murder of the young woman.
The postmortem results were, however, still pending, Ngoepe said.
"We are still busy investigating many things around the life of the suspect, including his background," said Ngoepe.
Meanwhile, the family of the victim have blamed the police for not having taken action against the suspect earlier.
The victim's uncle, Wright N'wa Makena, said the suspect and the victim were in a relationship before Rikhotso was killed.
He said that prior to the killing, the suspect had stabbed his niece on two previous occasions and the matter was referred to the police.
He said the police had taken no action.
According to N'wa Makena, Machava had stabbed his niece last year during an argumentbetween them.
He said the suspect was arrested, but released a few days later.
N'wa Makena alleged that Machava had also stabbed Rikhotso earlier this year "and police did nothing about it".
N'wa Makena asked: "Her parents are both unemployed so who is going to take responsibility to bury her?"