Confessor: Bishop Joshua Chakoma of the Healing Star Apostolic Church said the suspect’s family asked him to cast out his ‘evil spirits’.
This week police arrested a 32-year-old man from Klerksdorp in connection with the murder of 15-year-old Nombuyiselo Nombewu. The arrest was swift, just hours after her body was found, and was based on an alleged confession by a life-long friend of the family.
It has also emerged that, at the time Nombewu was killed, the suspect was out on bail for an alleged rape in April.
And another resident of the small Jouberton Extension 7 township in Klerksdorp has told police that the suspect had also abducted and raped her, but she had managed to escape. She had initially not laid charges after he had threatened her.
The leader of the Healing Star Apostolic Church, which is 4km away from where the teenager’s burnt body was found, described how the confession was made. Bishop Joshua Chakoma said that, hours before Nombewu’s disappearance, the suspect’s family had asked him to cast away “evil spirits possessing our nephew”.
“A congregant from my church called to check if I was available, to which I said ‘yes’. She came here at around 10.30am with her husband and a young man,” the prophet recalls.
Sitting in his tiny church made of rusty corrugated iron sheets, Chakoma says: “The uncle asked me to pray and cleanse the young man, as his life was in disarray.
“I put on my robes and told him to come kneel before me, for me to pray for him,” he recalls, clutching his knuckles and squinting his eyes.
“I told them the young man was in trouble with the police and was currently on bail. I told them that greater trouble – which would see him languish in a jail cell for a long time – was headed his way.”
The family left with the hope of returning later after consulting the young man’s mother.
“The plan was to cleanse him of all these evil spirits haunting him as soon as possible but, unfortunately, it never happened,” Chakoma says.
Instead, at about 7am on Saturday, Chakoma was woken by a tentative knock on his front door.
“My wife and I were still asleep while my daughter was watching cartoons. I got up, put on my dressing gown to check who was knocking on my door so early in such cold weather,” he said.
On the other side of the door was the “freezing cold” man he had prayed for the previous day, with a “tattooed, light-skinned” companion. The bishop said it was the first time he had seen the friend.
Chakoma said the young man he’d prayed for was in a state of panic, desperately pleading for the bishop to pray and cleanse him.
“He was all jumpy and jittery. I had to restrain him; I invited them inside and asked him where his uncle was. He couldn’t give a straight answer,” the prophet recalls. His companion kept muttering: “Tell him.”
The young man allegedly said: “Prophet, yesterday I had sex with a 15-year-old girl and when we were done I strangled her and hit her with an object in the neck. I think she’s dead at my place.”
Chakoma said he told the young man he was unable to assist him without his family present. He said he advised him to report the incident to police as an accident.
“But I knew he’d be arrested as this was a murder. I also called his uncle to alert him of what his nephew had just told me. But he was unable to leave work to attend to the emergency,” he said.
When the prophet tried to get the young man’s address from his uncle, the uncle said he did not know it and only knew how to get to the house. The suspect allegedly lives alone.
“As they were leaving, I called him back and asked him to write down his name and that of the girl he said he had killed, to which he obliged,” he said.
Chakoma showed the Mail & Guardian the piece of paper with two names scribbled on it.
The two youths disappeared into the bitterly cold morning.
The uncle arrived at the church later that day. “I told him to report the matter to the police and go to his nephew’s place with them. He was in disbelief when he left,” Chakoma said.
The next morning, during a church service, the suspect’s aunt dashed outside to answer a call.
“When she came back she raised her hand for my attention. She told me that a young girl’s badly burnt body had been found in Extension 7, not far from his [the suspect’s] house.”
“I was left numb,” Chakoma said.
Later that afternoon, the prophet heard another knock on the door.
It was once again the suspect in a fretful state.
At a loss for words, he uttered: “Young man, you’re back? To which he said ‘yes’. He begged for me to cleanse him. I told him I couldn’t without his family present.”
The two agreed, he said, to call his uncle to the chapel.
“I called his uncle and spoke to him. I cut the call pretending to have run out of airtime. I then asked him [the suspect] to accompany me to the local tuck shop to buy more airtime,” he said.
During the brief walk, the prophet said he was able to alert a few neighbours without the suspect noticing anything.
Among the neighbours alerted was an off-duty policeman.
“We came back here. The four other guys followed minutes later and we kept him here until the police arrested him about 30 minutes later,” he said.
North West police spokesperson Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone confirmed all three cases the suspect is linked to. In relation to Nombuyiselo’s case, he said the suspect had been remanded in custody until May 29 for further investigation.
The suspect was due to appear in the same court on May 23 for the rape of another teenager.
“The crime was committed on April 23,” he said.