• A man accused of murdering  Tshegofatso Pule has appeared in the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court.
• The case against Muzikayise Malephane, 31, was postponed to 24 June. 
• He told the court that he will not apply for bail during his next appearance. 

The man accused of killing Tshegofatso Pule has told the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court that he will not apply for bail during his next appearance.

On Wednesday, Muzikayise Malephane, 31, made his first court appearance following his arrest on Monday in connection with the murder of the heavily pregnant Pule. 

Pule's body was found hanging from a tree near Roodepoort earlier this month. She had been stabbed in the chest. 

The 28-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant was last seen on 4 June leaving her Meadowlands home in Soweto to visit her boyfriend in Florida.

Her body was positively identified on 8 June by her family.

Malephane is expected back in court on 24 June. 

On Wednesday, a group of men who had discovered Pule's body hanging, protested outside the court.

Hanging

"On that day, I was called by a friend from home that they had found the body of a woman hanging from a tree. At the time, we all didn’t know who she was. We then started taking pictures of her and posted them on social media to assist her family in identifying her," one of the protesters, Tshepo Bodibe told News24.

"We posted them on Facebook and they went viral. The victim was later identified by her family on June 8, three days after we found her body," said Bodibe.

Bodibe, clutching his placard, told News24 that the image of Pule on that day still lingers in his mind.

"We want justice for Pule. We don't know her and have never met her before, but as men it is our responsibility to stand against gender-based violence and defend women and children against abuse," he said.

Tshego Bodibe (middle) Moses Mogashoa (left) and Bongani Radebe (right) protest outside the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

News24 Ntwaagae Seleka/News24

The Sunday Times reported earlier this week that the father of Pule's unborn child, Ntuthuko Shoba, had secured a lawyer as he was the last person to see her alive. 

CCTV footage

Pule's family told the publication that they had last seen her Thursday, 4 June, when she left her Meadowlands home in Soweto to meet Shoba.

Pule's uncle, Tumisang Katake, said the police had shown the family CCTV footage taken outside Shoba's home. In it, Pule can allegedly be seen getting into a grey Jeep on the Thursday night in question. Shoba did not go with her.