MURDER accused Ntokozo Zikhali was calm, yet he had a sad face when he made a confession statement.
State witness Lieutenant Colonel Flippie Bronkhorst revealed this at the Pretoria High Court sitting in Benoni Magistrates Court on Thursday, 3 August.
Colonel Bronkhorst said he asked Zikhali if he was assaulted or threatened by any person to influence him to come and make the confession statement, and he said no.
"I asked him if there was any promises being made to him by any person to make a statement and I ask him if he expected to benefit if he made a statement. His response was no," Bronkhorst said.
"He told me he was assaulted by police officers and they put a plastic bag on his head when they questioned him, and they also kicked him," he said.
The state prosecutor Eric Sihlangu asked Colonel Bronkhorst if they were expecting Zikhali to open a case against the police.
Colonel Bronkhorst said if the accused told him he was assaulted to make the statement, he would have stopped the proceedings.
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Zikhali's Defence Advocate, Anneke Van Wyk, said her client was never asked to make a statement but was taken from the holding cells to an office to make that statement.
"He was taken to go and make a statement without being told or agreeing that he was going to make the statement," she said.
Zikhali testified that he was not forced to make the statement, but he was fetched from the holding cells at the Brakpan police station.
Bokgabo's mutilated body was found in a veld in Wattville, Ekurhuleni, after she went missing on 10 October 2022 while playing with a friend in Masoleng Park.
The evidence of Bokgabo Poo's murder accused Ntokozo Zikhali's involvement in a pointing out process has been ruled inadmissible.
Judge Ian Cox said the police may not have properly warned him that participating in a pointing out process is not obligatory.
