“Karabo scarred from abuse”
Mantsoe claims that Mokoena lost her baby
Karabo Mokoena had suffered a miscarriage after being beaten by a previous boyfriend and had been emotionally scarred after being raped by one of her ex-lover’s friends.
She was also abused by her father and another Nigerian ex-boyfriend who‚ despite physically and emotionally abusing her‚ had gotten her hooked on the high life‚ giving her about R100 000 monthly.
This was the grim image Sandile Mantsoe painted of his 22-year-old lover‚ Mokoena‚ who he is now accused of killing.
These details are contained in a statement Mantsoe gave to police on May 11‚ a day after he was arrested in connection with her disappearance.
In the South Gauteng High Court yesterday‚ Captain Rodgers Mahundla‚ who took down Mantsoe’s statement‚ read it out to the court.
Mantsoe claimed he and Mokoena started living together shortly after they began dating in September 2016 because she couldn’t stand the abuse she suffered at her father’s hands back home.
“She had a miscarriage [after] her boyfriend from Nigeria ... kicked her [in the] stomach.”
Mantsoe said Mokoena also told him she had been raped by a friend of her ex-lover‚ leaving her with emotional scars and depressed.
He alleged that she repeatedly tried to take her own life.
“She saw the guy who allegedly raped her at Sandton Skye. She took my Mercedes-Benz... and she crashed it because she wanted to commit suicide.
“[Another] attempt was at the place of my residence in Sandton Skye in 2017... She drank a lot of pills saying she wanted to commit suicide‚” he said‚ adding that he had to call security guards to open his apartment as she had locked herself in.
“We found her sleeping next to a box of pills on the floor. She was very dizzy. There was a suicide note which she destroyed later.”
While Mantsoe is accused of murdering Mokoena‚ he has pleaded not guilty‚ saying she had committed suicide by stabbing herself in the neck.
His statement said he had tried on numerous occasions to end their relationship but she always came back and apologised‚ wanting to fix it.
It gave his version of how he had panicked when he returned home to find her dead.
“When I came home‚ I found Karabo on the carpet [bleeding]… I panicked. I did not know what to do because there was a knife.”
Mantsoe allegedly claimed to have dragged Mokoena’s body to the bathroom‚ left the apartment and gone in search of material that could help him get rid of the corpse.
“I went to go get a tyre at Lyndhurst and bought fuel and went to look for a place to go and dispose of her body.” He said he found a spot and left the tyre and petrol there. Her body was found burnt in Lyndhurst.
The trial continues today.