Nkosi, Ngubane hired to kill Gamedze - Crown
ALLEGATION:
According to the advocate, the only reason the pair came to Eswatini was because they had been hired to kill Gamedze. He pointed an accusing finger at Shongwe.
MBABANE – The Crown says State witnesses Mbuso ‘Ncaza’ Nkosi and Simphiwe ‘Tata’ Ngubane had no reason to come to Eswatini other than being hired to kill Victor Gamedze.
According to Advocate Michael Hellens, who appears in Sipho Shongwe’s trial for the murder of Gamedze, Nkosi and Ngubane had no grudge against the latter. He said Gamedze also had no grudge against the duo and they did not know each other.
Hired
According to the advocate, the only reason the pair came to Eswatini was because they had been hired to kill Gamedze. He pointed an accusing finger at Shongwe.
In the Crown’s closing submissions yesterday, the advocate said it must immediately be noticed that Nksoi and Ngubane’s versions supported each other in all material respects.
He told the court that where there were differences, these were the kind of smaller differences in memory which was common to a human being going through the same experience.
Perception
“There are differences of perception and differences of memory of an insignificant nature brought about largely, probably, because of effluxion of time. In approaching an assessment of the evidence of these two witnesses, it must be borne in mind and indeed stressed that these are the two witnesses who together and at the same time phoned Nthombifuthi Masuku on the 12th of February 2018, wherein they sought to make contact through her with the accused who was in Matshapa Prison,” said the advocate.
He also stated that this was an independent uncontradicted common cause fact. Advocate Hellens submitted that if the accused did not know the two Section 234 witnesses, and never met them before and had not engaged them to kill Gamedze, then there would have been no reason on earth for them, soon after the murder, and while still free men, un-arrested in South Africa or at all, to be attempting to contact the accused.
Unshakeable
“This fact stands as an unshakeable edifice underpinning their evidence. It cannot be suggested that two people from South Africa, who did not know the accused, came to Eswatini to kill a person that they did not know, for no motive whatsoever and who they did not attempt to rob and whose car they did not attempt to steal unless they
were engaged to do it by someone.
“It was an otherwise reasonless and motiveless arbitrary murder of a stranger. It is not reasonably possible to contemplate that ‘Ncaza’ Nkosi came to Eswatini where he had never been before and to which he never wishes before to go to kill a person that he did not know and with whom he had no disagreement and for the killing of whom he had no motive. It had to be for the reason given by both Ngubane and Nkosi,” added the advocate.
Underpinning
Advocate Hellens said underpinning their versions was the video footage recorded at Ngwenya Border Gate, as well as at Ezulwini Spar and at Galp Filling Station.
According to the a dvocate, the evidence of both Ngubane and Nkosi was to the effect that they attempted to tell their story to a Legal Aid Attorney while they were incarcerated in South Africa, before they were extradited to Eswatini, and that they signed the statements in circumstances, where the statements were not read back to them. They said they did not have time to have a decent debate about the contents of the statement with the legal aid attorney.
“No excuses are made for them in this regard save that the court will have observed the demeanour and confidence of both Ngubane and Nkosi in the witness box and the certainty with which they gave their evidence in court. Both had met the accused.
“The identification of the accused was being criticised as being a ‘dock identification’ but this was not the kind of identification where one is attempting to identify a stranger such as one would do on an identity parade.
met
“If one has met the person and knows the person, it is artificial to expect some kind of identification evidence prior to the pointing out of the person in court when that person is in fact in court in front of you and one could describe him by looking at him and then pointing him out as the person that you know.”
There could be no criticism for the manner in which both Ngubane and Nkosi readily identified the accused as the person that they met in Johannesburg and further met in Eswatini and to engage them in the case of Nkosi for the murder, according to Advocate Hellens.
He said there was no question that Ngubane did not know that the ‘job’ was a murder and that he thought it was a robbery of a man who had a substantial amount of money in the boot of his car. Nkosi explained the manner in which he was allegedly engaged by the accused and why he kept Ngubane in the dark about the true motive for the trip to Eswatini.
Nkosi told the court that Ngubane would be his eyes and ears as they had worked together before and Ngubane was astute to pick up the presence of police or security and to recognise a dangerous situation when one presented itself.
“The likelihood that the accused would engage two killers from, for example, Soweto, South Africa, is borne out by the Crown witnesses that indicated a motive and a threat made previously by the accused regarding Victor Gamedze.”
Murder
Meanwhile, in his evidence, Shongwe denied that he ever met Nkosi and Ngubane anywhere prior to the murder of Gamedze. The accused also denied any knowledge of Farouk Meyer, who was allegedly the middlemen between Nkosi and Shongwe when the plan to assassinate Gamedze was being discussed.
Shongwe also denied any involvement in the murder.
He said on January 14, 2018, he was at his home, at Ngculwini in the Shiselweni Region, when Gamedze was killed at Ezulwini Galp Filing Station. Nkosi admitted that he shot Gamedze twice in the head. The matter is pending before Judge Nkosinathi Maseko.