A woman broke down on the witness stand in the Port Elizabeth High Court as her alleged rapist threatened to hunt her down and kill her.
The frightening outbursts from rape and murder accused Trust Tofa prompted Judge Jannie Eksteen to call him to order, with warnings that his comments could be detrimental to his case.
“I should have rather killed you than my Zimbabwean brother,” Tofa, 30, shouted out to a stunned courtroom, also accusing the complainant, a former girlfriend, of being a prostitute.
“Even if it is after 100 years that I come out [of jail], I am going to hunt you down and kill you. And if I don’t find you, I will kill your children,” Tofa threatened.
The woman, 28, who was pregnant at the time of the alleged rapes, had told the court how she had first witnessed Tofa bludgeon her boyfriend of four months to death with an iron rod in November 2016.
He then allegedly dragged her to a house nearby, where he held her against her will and raped her on more than one occasion.
The alleged assaults were so vicious that the woman went into pre-term labour at around six months. The baby miraculously survived.The bulky Zimbabwean national, who continuously disrupted court proceedings throughout the week, was guarded yesterday by three heavily armed correctional services officials.
One official carried an electrical shock shield.
At one point yesterday, Tofa refused to take his seat in the dock until the journalists in the gallery were ordered to vacate.
He said the publication of his photograph in the newspaper had placed his life at risk in the maximum division of St Albans Prison, where he is serving a 12-year sentence for an unrelated robbery and assault.
Facing the judge and avoiding Tofa’s snide remarks and laughter, the woman recounted how not even a pot of boiling water thrown in Tofa’s face had put an end to the vicious attack.
On Monday, after refusing to plead to the charges, which included housebreaking, murder, rape, kidnapping and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, Eksteen entered pleas of not guilty on Tofa’s behalf.
The woman said Tofa had followed her around for close to a week prior to the incident.
During the early hours of November 18 2016, he allegedly kicked down the door to the NU9 home in Motherwell where the woman and her boyfriend, Godfrey Kumire, had spent the night.
The woman said while Tofa allegedly beat Kumire, he shouted out: “I have been telling you to separate from my girlfriend.”
She said: “I tried to intervene and he pushed me up against the wall.
“I asked [my sister] to call for help. I told her that [Kumire] was dying.”
Her sister threw a pot of scalding water in Tofa’s face, but this simply fuelled his anger. He allegedly stabbed her.
He then dragged the woman to a house in Ingwe Street in NU1.
“As we got to the gate of the house, I observed an opportunity to scream but he [cuffed my mouth],” the woman said.
There, she alleges, Tofa raped her twice. He allegedly also hit her in her stomach.
Eksteen turned down Tofa’s request for an order that no photographs be taken.
“The Criminal Procedure Act stipulates that proceedings take place in an open court,” the judge said.
“The press have an obligation to report fairly on the events which occur in courts.”
The trial continues.ALSO READ