A North West man who allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death and left her lifeless body inside a bath tub at a guest house in Zeerust, wants the court to change his murder charge to culpable homicide.

Olebogeng Molema admitted before the Zeerust Magistrate's Court that he killed his girlfriend Pelotlhomogi Moremedi in August last year, but said it was not intentional.

Molema was arrested in September after a long police search.

He was found in Rustenburg after police received a tip-off about his whereabouts.

Last Thursday, he pleaded not guilty to murder.

In a prepared statement, Molema said he got angry after bumping into his girlfriend kissing another man in the Zeerust town.

He said he captured the moment with his cellphone and asked Moremedi out the following day.

While at Gatelo Guest House, where they met, the cellphone belonging to Moremedi rang. "I asked her to answer the phone and realised that it was a man. I asked her if it was the same man I saw her with the previous day and the argument started, and I ended up stabbing her with a knife," he said.

Meanwhile, Moremedi's mother Ebueng Moremedi told Sowetan on Friday that she was not happy that Molema pleaded not guilty.

The trial was postponed to November 28.

tshehleb@sowetan.co.za