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Sandile Mantsoe has denied murdering his girlfriend Karabo Mokoena and is now claiming that she committed suicide.
Mantsoe said during his bail application at the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court on Friday that Mokoena had been suicidal at the time of her death.
He said his girlfriend of seven months had overdosed on pills and slit her wrists.
His bail application has been postponed to June 30.
Counter arguments from the State claim that Mantsoe confessed to police after his arrest that he killed Mokoena in a ritual killing in order to save his failing business.
He apparently had a superstitious belief that a bad “blood tie” between them existed, as reported by a Sunday tabloid Sunday World earlier this month.
The court also heard that it was unclear whether Mokoena was alive when Mantsoe allegedly doused her body in petrol and set it on fire.
Last month, the State and Mantsoe’s lawyers agreed that media coverage on the details of the bail hearing should be banned, citing concerns that the information was of a sensitive nature.
The ban was lifted this morning after Times Media Group filed an urgent application seeking the court to rescind the order it gave last month.
During his initial bail application hearing in May, it was revealed that Mantsoe was married and had three children with his estranged wife.
Mantsoe has pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice and will remain in prison.
