A former boyfriend of murdered teenager Samantha Uys on Thursday told the Pretoria High Court that one of her alleged killers had confessed his role in the gruesome murder to him.
Joshua Bebington testified in the trial of his two friends, Kabelo ”KB” Mokwena and Ricky ”Slash” Godfrey.
The two 19-year olds have denied murdering Uys and robbing her of her mother’s car near her house in Silverton in November 2005.
Bebington told the court that he had met Uys at Willow Ridge High School, where they were both pupils, and had dated her for a while. He was a boarder at her mother’s house at the time of her death.
He remembered watching videos and getting a cigarette from Uys the night before her disappearance, but that was the last time he saw her.
When he returned home in the early hours of the morning, he noticed that Mrs Uys’s car and Samantha were gone. He went to look for her at Godfrey’s house several times, but could not find her.
The next day, Mokwena came to visit him at Uys’s home, asking to talk to him privately. The first thing he said was that they (Mokwena and Godfrey) had killed Uys.
Mokwena also agreed to go and show Bebington where they had killed her.
Mokwena allegedly said he, Godfrey and Uys had pushed her mother’s car out of the parking area that night and had driven to a bridge in Silverton where he and Godfrey smoked dagga.
When Uys wanted to leave, Mokwena grabbed her around the neck and throttled her while Godfrey held her hands. Godfrey also kicked Uys after she was already dead.
Mokwena also told him that they had dragged Uys to a tree and later took her to a river, where Mokwena took Godfrey’s knife and stabbed her in the neck three times. They also put her pants around her neck so that she would not bleed in the car.
They later drove to Mamelodi, where they dumped the body near a squatter camp.
Mokwena told him he had also picked up a rock and had thrown it onto Uys’s neck ”to make sure that she was dead”.
They took her mother’s car to a chop shop in Mamelodi, where they washed it before walking home.
Asked if Mokwena had given any reason for the attack, Bebington said his friend had told him they killed Uys for her car so that they could party and get money for drugs and alcohol.
About three days after the murder, Godfrey came to him and offered him R1 000, which he assumed was to keep him quiet.
Bebington at first did not say anything because the two were his friends.
Later he went to the police after phoning a family friend, who told him he had to go to the police, or the friend would report the matter himself. — Sapa