WATCH | 'Table Mountain killer' guilty of double murder, multiple assaults

The man accused of killing two men and stabbing multiple others in Table Mountain National Park during a spate of violent attacks in 2018 was found guilty on 10 counts in the Cape Town high court on Thursday.

Judge Judith Cloete read out her 100-page judgment as victims' family members watched from the public gallery. Bveni's face — half covered by a white mask — showed no sign of emotion as the guilty verdict was read.

Bveni pleaded not guilty and said the dozens of witnesses testifying against him were all lying.

“I have come to the conclusion, that on counts one to 10, the accused's version cannot reasonably, possibly, be true. Indeed it is so improbable that it should be rejected as false beyond reasonable doubt,” read j Cloete.

“The follow order is made: on counts one to 10, the accused is found guilty.”

Bveni was found guilty of stabbing to death pilot Doug Notten on January 28 2018 while he was walking with his wife on the mountain near Fish Hoek.

Bveni was also found to have murdered cyclist Ian McPherson on March 13 2018 while he was riding his new mountain bike on a footpath just a kilometre from where Notten was killed.

The judge praised the state witnesses' credibility after five of the victims from separate incidents pointed out Bveni's photograph from police photo-identification parades.

Bveni, a Zimbabwean, was also facing two counts of immigration fraud after a false passport and a false temporary asylum document were allegedly found in his possession by police. However, this could not be proven by the state prosecutor Christopher Burke.

“While I have my suspicions, the failure by the state to lead any evidence on how police came to be in possession of the copy of the permits ... I conclude that the state has failed to prove this count beyond reasonable doubt,” said Cloete.

But when Bveni testified, he told the court he twice entered SA illegally by bribing home affairs officials at the Beitbridge border post.

After the judgment, Bveni was led down to the holding cells and will remain in custody until sentencing arguments on January 25 2021 followed by his sentencing on January 28.

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