Bafana Mahungela sentencing postponed to November in murder case of Kirsten Kluyts

The sentencing of convicted murderer Bafana Mahungela has been postponed to November 23, 2026.

The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has postponed the sentencing of 23-year-old man accused of killing Sandton teacher Kirsten Kluyts.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed the postponement on Tuesday saying the proceedings would resume on November 23, 2026, after the presiding judge was engaged in another court matter.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) confirmed the postponement on Tuesday, October 27, saying the proceedings would resume on November 23, 2026.

Bafana Mahungela was convicted following a lengthy trial over the murder of Delta Park High School teacher Kirsten Kluyts, who was killed on October 29, 2023, while participating in a run at George Lea Park in Sandton.

Mahungela was found guilty of murder, kidnapping, attempted rape, robbery with aggravating circumstances and defeating the ends of justice.

He pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

Mahungela was arrested in November 2023 at a student residence in Parkmore, following the discovery of Kluyts’s body dumped along a jogging path in George Lea Park, Sandton, on October 29, 2023.

Kluyts, a teacher at Delta Park High School, had been participating in a local athletic event on the day she was killed. 

She was pregnant at the time of her death.

Investigators said surveillance footage showed Mahungela wearing a black T-shirt and trousers before the killing. 

He was later seen leaving the vicinity of the crime scene at 8.49 a.m, wearing a blue T-shirt identified by investigators as the same one Kluyts had been wearing earlier that morning. 

He was also seen holding a black item in his left hand.

Mahungela previously admitted to undressing Kluyts and leaving her body naked in the bushes, claiming he did so only to remove fingerprints after attempting to “help” her. 

Her clothes were later recovered from a nearby drain.

A post-mortem report revealed that Kluyts died from blunt-force head trauma and strangulation. 

The State alleges that the fatal assault lasted approximately eight minutes.

A medical report showed that Kluyts had no injuries on the external genitalia area, anus, and the vaginal canal.