Cape Town - Rape and murder accused Abraham Mtsweni appeared in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday, where arguments were heard following allegations of the matter being delayed by the defence.
Mtsweni was charged with the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend Sesi Sibanyoni after she was found dead in her Maitland flat on July 29, 2019, three days after Mtsweni visited her.
He was arrested after being involved in a car crash while on his way to Pretoria.
Before closing his case, Mtsweni’s lawyer, Tebogo Sebogodi, attempted to bring an application for a special entry to be made stating how the proceedings were irregular or not according to law but later abandoned the application.
Advocate Carine Teunissen told the court that Mtsweni should be found guilty for both rape and murder based on circumstantial evidence.
She said: “The deceased was found in a locked apartment; the only other key that was available was that of the caretaker and that means that nobody else could go into the place because there was no forced entry.
“The other set of keys was with the accused which means he was the last person to leave the flat with her there and nobody could have entered.”
She said evidence provided by Sibanyoni’s close friends pointed to the fact that she was upset when Mtsweni visited her.
According to the State, witnesses had testified that Sibanyoni refused to have sex with Mtsweni and did not want him in her life anymore.
Advocate Tuenissen said: “All of these small elements create the circumstantial impression of an aggressive person wanting his way.” She added that Mtsweni was a poor witness in that his evidence was incoherent and that he often went on a tangent.
In his argument, Sebogodi made submissions that Mtsweni had not been granted a fair trial. He asked the court to reject several testimonies as evidence citing various loopholes and flaws in the way that evidence was presented to the court.
He also said the State was withholding information during proceedings and that the charge of rape was only brought two weeks before the matter went to trial.
He told the court that after Mtsweni’s accident he did not receive medical attention in police custody for a number of days and he was only attended to after he gave a confession.
He said that the alleged confession cannot been regarded as Mtsweni’s confession to murder, even if it is considered and that it only speaks of the couple arguing, their physical altercation, and him sleeping on the couch.
“According to that very confession, he says he checked the deceased and she was still alive and left... he learnt of the deceased death through the police,” Sebogodi said.
He told the court that the pictures taken at the crime scene were taken selectively and that the evidence regarding the cause of death failed to consider other possibilities in determination.