‘Where are the real killers?’: Bokgabo’s devastated dad as accused walks free

“Where are the real killers, if you're saying that man is not guilty?”

This was the question posed by the father of slain Ekurhuleni girl Bokgabo Poo, 4, after the man tried for her murder was found not guilty by the Pretoria high court sitting in Benoni.

Ntokozo Zikhali was accused of two rapes, kidnapping, mutilation of a body, defeating the ends of justice and violation of a corpse. He pleaded not guilty. Zikhali is still in the dock after pleading guilty to the rape of a nine-year-old girl. 

Bokgabo’s dismembered body was found in October last year, with some body parts still missing, in two separate locations in Wattville.

She was last seen in grainy CCTV footage merrily skipping along from a park near her family’s house. 

The next day, a 63-year-old woman was sweeping her yard when she found the leg of a child in a shallow grave. About 800m away, more body parts were found in a section of open veld. 

Judge Ian Cox on Monday acquitted Zikhali after earlier dismissing an application by the state to enter into evidence the statement made by a witness who was with the investigating officer when they collected Zikhali at the Boksburg police station after his arrest, according to Benoni City Times.

“In this matter, there is no evidence before the court from which a reasonable man acting cautiously would convict the accused on any of the counts 3-6. Hence the application for the discharge of the accused is granted in respect of those counts and the accused is found not guilty and is charged on counts 3-6,” Cox said.

The first two counts were withdrawn.

Last week, the court ruled that the evidence of Zikhali's involvement in a pointing out process was inadmissible. Cox found that though the accused's rights were read out to him during his arrest, he was satisfied police may not have adequately warned him that participating in a pointing out process was not obligatory

Reacting to the news of Zikhali's acquittal, Poo's heartbroken father Irvin Ndlovu questioned what the police were doing to catch his daughter's killers.

“If you tell me this man is not guilty, where are the killers? What are you doing, where are the police, where is [police minister] Bheki Cele? Where are the real killers?”

Ndlovu made an impassioned plea for assistance with finding his daughter's killers.

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