“IT was too much for me to accept that my son would do such a thing.”
This was the chilling evidence of Mark Khumalo, the father of Sifiso Mkhwanazi who has been accused of killing sex workers in the Joburg CBD.
Khumalo said he wouldn't have believed his son would allegedly do such a thing if he hadn't been there when the first body was found.
Khumalo, who testified in the trial held in the Joburg High Court sitting in Palm Ridge, Ekurhuleni on Monday, 5 February, said he never imagined he would ever testify against his son.
Mkhwanazi (21) faces six counts of murder, seven counts of rape, six counts of obstructing the administration of justice, robbery with aggravating circumstances and unauthorised possession of firearms and ammunition.
The charges stem from the discovery of six female bodies on the premises of a panel beater shop in Rosettenville, Joburg on October 2022.
Khumalo said suspicious things were happening in his workshop. He said days before the discovery of the bodies, there was a bad smell but they couldn’t find where it was coming from.
“We checked the area but couldn’t find anything, but the smell was unbearable. We opened the windows during the day and closed them when we knock off, but we always wondered why we found them opened in the morning,” said Mark.
He said he once asked his son where the smelling was coming from.
“My son claimed that a cat died underneath a customer’s vehicle, and he was cleaning the car,” said Khumalo,” he said.
The father who looked calm in the dock said he was also surprised that three trolley dustbins were missing from their workshop.
“When I asked him about the trolley dustbins, he told me they might be at the dumpster. He later brought another dustbin which was smaller than ours,” he said.
Khumalo said on 9 October 2022, when the first body was found, he received a call from the caretaker of the building - Michael Damian - to come to the office.
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“I never went to the offices to check what was happening. Instead, I called my son who lived a few kilometres away from my workshop. I told him to bring the office keys downstairs and that I’m coming to collect them.
“We drove to my place, me, the caretaker and two security guards. When my son saw Michael, he got scared. We ordered him to get into the car and drove to the police station to report the matter,” said Khumalo.
He said when cops arrived at the building, they went to check the footage and saw the accused coming into the building with a woman, and they arrested him on the spot.
He said cops went to the office where they found the body of the woman.
“Later on the day, cops discovered five other bodies - one with gunshot wounds while the other five had signs of being strangled,” he said.
Damian, the building caretaker, testified that on 9 October 2022, he went to the building with his four-year-old son to wash his car. He said when he arrived at the building, he went to get warm water to wash his car.
“While I was going up the floors, I could smell something bad and decided to open the offices. I could find something in the two offices.
“When I opened the third office, I was greeted by the bad smell. It was dark, and I used my cellphone torch to light the room, and I saw something that looked like a human body lying on the ground,
He said he grabbed his son went downstairs and informed the security to check the office.
“I was traumatised and didn’t go back to check. The security came back and informed me it was the body of a woman.
“I called Mark Khumalo, who is the tenant and father of the accused as well as the boss of the security company," he said. The father of the accused will continue testifying in court on Tuesday, 6 February.
