A Durban pastor charged with the murder of his girlfriend at their Glenwood flat last week says he was acting in self defence - and he has the stab wounds to prove it.

The 40-year-old priest, Ntsikelelo Mpumi Zinto, who works for the Favors Cathedral Church in Umlazi, appeared before Durban magistrate Vanitha Armu on Monday. 

He was arrested for the murder of a woman, only identified as "Viwe" on the charge sheet, who died after falling several storeys from a window in his flat in Bulwer Road last Wednesday. She also suffered stab wounds.

In an affidavit in support of bail, read out by his attorney, Wesley Rogers, he said he had suffered "multiple stab" wounds on his back, arm, and thigh.

"I was also cut on my cheek and fingers as I struggled to gain control of the knife," he said.

Zinto said the attack on him was "unprovoked" and he would "most certainly plead not guilty to all charges".

He alleged Viwe had been drinking alcohol and was "completely on a rampage" following an argument.

"Had I not defended myself, I most certainly would have been killed," he said.

But he denied killing her.

"While the state alleges that I pushed her out of the window, after I disarmed her she ran out of the room and, I am told, she threw herself out of the window.

"For me to have pushed her out of a high, narrow window would have been impossible for me, especially as I had sustained serious stab wounds...I lost consciousness and later woke up in hospital."

Zinto said he trained at the church’s head office in Pretoria to become a pastor and was ordained in 2016 when he took up the position in Durban.

The state did not oppose bail and it was set at R2,000.

He will appear in court again at the end of May by which time the state will be in possession of the post-mortem report.