In the early hours of 14 April 2013, the badly beaten body of a young woman was discovered on the streets of Woodstock.
At the same time, on the other side of Cape Town, in a place that may have been a completely different world, a wealthy artist drove a brand-new Porsche into his garage and switched off the engine. He walked into his house and carried on with his life, having no idea that the brutal crime he’d just committed had been captured on camera.
In a tragic irony, the same medium Zwelethu Mthethwa had used in his art, which had rocketed him to international fame and fortune, would become evidence that he had beaten 23-year-old Nokuphila Kumalo to death.
Painter and photographer Mthethwa beat Kumalo‚ 23‚ to death in Woodstock in 2013. She died of cardiac arrest after suffering a liver injury from blunt force trauma.
The incident was captured on CCTV and Mthethwa’s Porsche was identified at the scene.
The case would bring many important issues to the fore: the urgent need to decriminalise sex work, how human lives are often valued based on status, and the invisible power that wealthy, famous men wield.
In episode 115 of True Crime South Africa, we assess the evidence that brought Mthethwa to book and consider how, if Nokuphila’s killer had been anyone else, she likely would have never received justice.
SHOWNOTES:
Host: Nicole Engelbrecht
Producer: Nicole Engelbrecht
Music: Snippet (with permission) from Prime Circle’s Evidence
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