Sandton park murder: Bafana Mahungela verdict delayed
The high court in Johannesburg has postponed the handing down of judgment in the trial of 23-year-old Bafana Mahungela, who is accused of murdering Delta Park High School teacher Kirsten Kluyts in 2023.
Kluyts, who was 14 weeks pregnant with a baby boy, was killed at a My Run event in Parkmore, Sandton, on October 29 2023.
Mahungela has pleaded not guilty and disputed the state’s case, which has relied on CCTV footage, forensic evidence and evidence about his movements on the day of the killing.
The court proceedings began on Friday morning with a summary of testimony during the trial.
A general manager responsible for investigations and employed by a company providing armed response, static guarding, off-site monitoring, alarm installation, and CCTV services helped collect and preserve footage from different CCTV systems. He told the court that one system at Sandhurst Preparatory School showed Kluyts using a pedestrian gate during her run.
The footage allegedly showed a man near the area where Kluyts’ body was later found.
The man was wearing a bucket hat, a blue shirt and black trousers and carrying an item.
Further footage allegedly showed the same man walking near a service gate and later along nearby streets.
In another recording, the man was allegedly wearing a turquoise or teal-blue shirt resembling the shirt Kluyts had been wearing.
The manager told the court that he believed the person captured in the different recordings was Mahungela.
He based his identification on what he described as a combination of features, including the person’s facial features, bucket hat, footwear, trousers and a distinctive tattoo on the right upper arm.
The defence challenged the manager’s identification of Mahungela and questioned the reliability of the CCTV timestamps.
However, the manager rejected suggestions that the footage had been manipulated.
The court also heard evidence from an image analyst at the SAPS forensic science laboratory in Silverton, which found that the man seen was the accused. Mahungela has maintained that the person shown in the CCTV footage is not him and has described the identification as mistaken.