Bafana Mahungela is accused of attempted rape and murder Sandton teacher Kirsten Kluyts.
Image: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers
The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has reserved judgment in the murder trial of 23-year-old man who is accused of killing Sandton teacher Kirsten Kluyts.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Magaboke Mohlatlole said court partially delivered its judgment on Friday before postponing the matter to September 11, 2026.
Bafana Mahungela has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Mohlatlole said with all evidence and submissions now before the court, the case has entered its final stage, with judgment expected next week.
Mahungela faces multiple charges, including kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, and attempted rape.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
He was arrested in November 2023 at a student residence in Parkmore, following the discovery of Kluyts’s body dumped along a jogging path in George Lea Park, Sandton, on October 29, 2023.
Kluyts, a teacher at Delta Park High School, had been participating in a local athletic event on the day she was killed.
She was pregnant at the time of her death.
Investigators said surveillance footage showed Mahungela wearing a black T-shirt and trousers before the killing.
He was later seen leaving the vicinity of the crime scene at 8.49 a.m, wearing a blue T-shirt identified by investigators as the same one Kluyts had been wearing earlier that morning.
He was also seen holding a black item in his left hand.
Mahungela previously admitted to undressing Kluyts and leaving her body naked in the bushes, claiming he did so only to remove fingerprints after attempting to “help” her.
Her clothes were later recovered from a nearby drain.
A post-mortem report revealed that Kluyts died from blunt-force head trauma and strangulation.
The State alleges that the fatal assault lasted approximately eight minutes.
A medical report showed that Kluyts had no injuries on the external genitalia area, anus, and the vaginal canal.
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