Mbabane, Swaziland (CNN) -- We met her in the car park of a small shopping mall on the edge of Mbabane, Swaziland's capital. She was too shy to get out of the car her friend had brought her in, too nervous of who might see, or what might be overheard.
She told us that she knew an isolated place where we could talk. Ten minutes later we are in scrubland standing by the rubble and remains of someone's home.
Here Nelsie - not her real name - stops fiddling with her plastic necklace and starts looking me in the eye, but even that appears to take considerable effort. She tells me that for the last two years, since both her parents died in a car crash, she has lived on the periphery, isolated from her remaining family and society.
"Right now I don't feel that I am a human being" she confesses. "Right now I am scared to greet my family because if I say that I am a prostitute all of the people will just say that I am a prostitute".
She wants us to know that this was not her first choice; she did try to find work.
MXOLISI Sukati who raped and brutally murdered a sex worker near the Mbabane Government Hospital, was yesterday sentenced to a total of 33 years in jail by the High Court. Sukati killed Lomagugu Mavuso in December, 2009. Judge Mary Sey imposed an 18-year custodial sentence for murder on count one and 15 years in prison for rape on count two without an option of a fine.
Both sentences are to run concurrently and were backdated to May 5, 2010, which is the date Sukati was arrested.
The judge said it could not be gain said that the offences committed by Sukati were very serious and horrendous as depicted by the photographs, which were admitted as evidence. Justice Sey commented that it was also clear from the evidence adduced before court that Mavuso suffered an unbelievably vicious attack, which I find totally reprehensible and unjustified on the part of the accused.” “Irrespective of what Lomagugu’s profession was, she did not have to be killed in that brutal and vicious way,” she remarked.
“Besides, Section 18 (1) of the constitution of the Kingdom of Swaziland Act, 2005 provides that ‘the dignity of every person is inviolable.’ Moreover, the protection of right to life is one of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individuals enshrined in the said constitution. Section 15 (1) thereto provides that a person shall not be deprived of life intentionally save in the execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence under the law of Swaziland of which that person has been convicted.
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MXOLISI Sukati, who raped and murdered a sex worker near the Mbabane Government Hospital, was yesterday convicted by the High Court. Sukati killed Lomagugu Mavuso in December, 2008. Judge Mary Sey rejected Sukati’s defence that the condom found at the scene of the crime was the one used by him and one Okwethu.
The judge said such was an after thought since he failerd to put it to third crown witness (PW 3) during cross-examination.
“If the accused’s allegation is anything to go by, it would have been suggested to PW 3 that there was DNA of someone else besides the DNA of the accused and the deceased,” she remarked.
“Defence counsel Leo Gama, submitted that the DNA expert found evidence of the DNA profile indicating that the deceased had sexual intercourse with somebody other than the accused. Counsel further submitted that even if the court were to find that the accused had murdered the deceased, the Crown had still not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the deceased was raped or that if she had sex with the accused, it was not been consensual.
“It appears to me from the appearance and condition of the deceased as depicted in the photographs that the defence of consensual sex cannot stand. The body reveals bloodstains all over the face, neck and chest, with the throat deeply slit like an animal that has been freshly slaughtered. It looks to me more like a crime of passion than an act involving consensual sex. “I equally note and accept Lomvula Hlophe’s submission that the accused’s explanation pertaining to the events that occured on the day in question and on the issues of the used condom is false beyond any reasonable doubt,” the judge noted.
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A self-proclaimed sex worker, Cynthia Shongwe wept uncontrolably when she narrated to High Court Judge Mary Sey how her friend was raped and stabbed to death at a waiting room near the Mbabane Government Hospital at around midnight.
Shongwe said she was sitting on a pavement next to Atlas Garage in Mbabane in the company of Lomagugu Mavuso (deceased) and a certain Sindie when the accused, Mxolisi Sukati approached them at around midnight on May 2, 2010.
She told the court that they were form KaLafata Bar and Restaurant.
Shongwe testified that Sukati dropped E200 in front of them and requested to have sexual intercourse with the deceased for the whole night since it was already midnight. She said Lomagugu, however, declined to take the E200 offer until Sindie voluntarily agreed to go away with Sukati after he had given her E150. Shongwe said Sindie dissapeared for a while with Sukati and came back to them. She told the court that Sindie was later taken away by a certain motor vehicle.
Shongwe said Sukati then dragged the deceased across the Mbabane-Manzini highway to the waiting room next to the Mbabane Government. “The accused person later resurfarced walking alone and informed me that Lomagugu had been raped and stabbed, dumped behind the waiting room,” she testifed.
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