By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The 21-year-old Varsity College student accused of the rape and murder of Kirsten Kluyts will spend Christmas behind bars.
He is accused of the pre-meditated murder and rape of Johannesburg teacher Kluyts.
The 34-year-old English teacher at Delta Park High School was murdered while taking part in a local sporting event in October.
Kluyts body was found at George Lea Park in Parkmore following her disappearance.
Her running shoes, sunglasses, blue T-shirt, pants, and pink cap were taken.
The victim was 14 weeks pregnant and was expecting a boy at the time of her murder.
His bail application was on Wednesday remanded to 29 December after a marathon address by the defence that lasted for six hours.
The defence finally wrapped up its arguments after 14:00, upon which the State asked for more time to respond.
During proceedings on Wednesday, state prosecutor Ayanda Bakana read out the affidavit of the investigating officer, Aubrey Tshisani, into the record.
The investigating officer, in the written statement, indicated that he was informed by a witness that Kluyts was walking during the race, rather than jogging, due to her pregnancy.
Tshisani said Kluyts’ body, which was found naked, was transported to Hillbrow mortuary, where a pathologist informed him that the cause of the victim’s death was blunt force head trauma, strangulation, smothering and pressure to the neck.
The officer revealed that a picture of Kluyts was taken at 8.05am, which was around the time she arrived to participate in the event.
“Camera footage was viewed at the entrance of the park, I saw the deceased coming into the park at around 08:04am,” said Bakana, while reading out Tshisani’s affidavit.
A black African man, with a tattoo on his right arm, wearing a black T-shirt was also seen in the footage around the same time Kluyts arrived, according to the officer.
Her phone was found by another runner at around 8.15am and handed to the MyRun event timekeeper.
“[This means] the murder occurred in the period of plus minus eight minutes and the deceased was found naked. I then looked at the footage of the person entering at the park wearing a black t-shirt and the one wearing the deceased’s t-shirt and saw that it was the same person.
“I followed this person on different camera footage and I saw this African male throwing a cap inside the drain and went back to check if someone can be able to see it from a distance,” the affidavit further reads.
The accused is adamant he did not rape or murder Kluyts, but conceded that he stole her clothes as he had contaminated the crime scene with his fingerprints.
He admitted that he wore her blue shirt and admitted to later disposing of it, along with her other clothing items.
The suspect also told the court that he should rather be facing charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice.
Defence lawyer Itumeleng Masako has argued that the rape charge against his client should be dropped.
The magistrate indicated that she would hand down her judgment on whether the 21-year-old student will be granted bail, on Friday next week.