Durban — The credibility of a State witness was questioned by defence lawyers on Wednesday at the Durban High Court during the closing address of a trial.
Felokwakhe Ndlovu, Nkosiyanda Ndlovu and Nkosinathi Mbambo stand accused of murdering Thulani Nxumalo, an ANC branch leader at KwaNdengezi.
Judgment is expected soon.
Counsel for all accused told the court it should be cautious when it came to evidence given by State witness Celani Dlamini. Dlamini had told the court that Felokwakhe asked him to drive him to his mother’s house quickly so he could move the gun that killed Nxumalo and that Mbambo and Ndlovu had hidden carelessly.
Manoj Hardeo, representing Mbambo, asked why Felokwakhe would mention the names of his coaccused to Dlamini.
“Why would he mention them by name? This means Dlamini was in on this plan,” he said.
Hardeo added that Dlamini had made up all of this and implicated the trio. He said Dlamini was a close friend and had time to cook up his story.
Shaheen Seedat, an attorney representing Ndlovu, said in the confession statement that his client didn’t talk about his involvement in the planning of the crime. Ndlovu had told the court this week he never made any confession statement and disputed being in a plan to kill Nxumalo.
“My Lord there is no mention of why my client transported Mbambo on that day. His statement does not talk about whether the firearm is illegal or not,” he said.
However, Judge Graham Lopes said: “His implication is clear. Why is he talking about the plastic with a gun?”
Seedat said he accepted this but his client didn’t say what the gun was for in his statement.
Furthermore, Lourens de Klerk argued that State witness Mzi Makhubalo never testified that Dlamini was the one who suggested the matter be escalated to the chief on the meeting that Felokwakhe had been at a police station. This was after the people of KwaNdengezi had been boycotting and burning tyres on the road because of land disputes.
In his testimony, Dlamini had said he was the one who had suggested that the matter be escalated to the chief. De Klerk further said the State should have brought a Colonel Zulu to explain how the meeting at the police station went.
When the senior State advocate, Lawrence Gcaba, gave his address he said the court should take Dlamini as a credible witness. He said Felokwakhe had confessed to Dlamini willingly.
“The two accused confessed to the police and it is even worse for Felokwakhe who confessed to his close friend,” said Gcaba.
He said the court would have to convict the accused on their confessions. Gcaba painted the picture of how the trio conspired and executed their plan.
“It all started with a plan going wrong. It’s clear that there was a plan. They were handed a firearm to use to kill Nxumalo. An instruction was given by Felokwakhe to his co-accused that they must (hide) the gun somewhere in a certain way,” he said.
Gcaba said Mbambo and Ndlovu went to the house of Felokwakhe’s mom to hide the murder weapon after killing Nxumalo. He said the two were seen by children in the yard when they “placed a plastic bag with a gun”.
He said the children alerted their grandmother that there were two strange men placing something in their home. “Like any good citizen his mother saw that the plastic had a firearm and called the police,” he said.
It was also revealed that after Felokwakhe’s mother called police, he told her daughter-in-law, who then called Felokwakhe.
Gcaba said after Felokwakhe was told about the gun being found by his mom and police being on their way, he panicked.
“That is when he asked Dlamini to take him to his mom’s home quickly. Dlamini noticed that he was agitated and asked him what was eating him up. That is when Felokwakhe spilled the beans,” said Gcaba.
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