Bafana Mahungela found guilty of Kirsten Kluyts’ murder

Kluyts was 14 weeks pregnant at the time. Her body was discovered off the running track in a secluded area. The High Court in Johannesburg has found Bafana Mahungela, 23, guilty of murder. On Friday, Mahungela returned to the court, where Judge Ian Cox delivered the judgment. Mahungela was charged with the kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder and attempted rape of Sandton teacher Kirsten Kluyts on 29 October 2023. Mahungela pleaded not guilty to all charges. Kluyts was 14 weeks pregnant at the time. Her body was discovered off the running track in a secluded area. The state’s case is that, on the day, Kluyts went jogging in an event held at George Lee Park, Sandton. At about 8am, she was captured on video starting her third round on the running track, wearing a blue T-shirt, black ski pants, running shoes, sunglasses and a cap. She had her cell phone, earphones and a watch with her. A minutes later, her cell phone was found lying close to the running track, and shortly thereafter, her naked dead body was found in a ditch next to a wall. Later, the postmortem report revealed that the cause of death was blunt force head trauma, strangulation, and that smothering or pressure to the neck could not be excluded. Video footage showed Mahungela entering the Park around 8:06am. He was wearing a black T-shirt. However, at about 8:49am, he was captured on video walking whilst wearing a blue T-shirt of the deceased with certain items rolled up in his hands. At about 8:52am, the Mahungela was seen scaling a closed gate that led outside the Park. He was wearing a blue T-shirt, and he threw items over the gate. He was again seen on video footage wearing a light blue T-shirt and sunglasses, still carrying the items. Further video footage shows the person in the blue T-shirt disposing of a cap and other clothing items into a drain. He even went back to see if the items were visible from the road. The cap was later retrieved from the drain. Mahungela admitted to stealing Kluyts’ clothes, saying he removed them so he would not be implicated. He also conceded that he wore her blue shirt and later disposed of it, along with her cap, pants and running shoes, down a drain.