Tavern owner in court for wife’s death
She had been shot multiple times. The accused was found unconscious
THE murder trial of a wellknown Gugulethu tavern owner, Thembekile Vokozela, who is accused of killing his wife, Ntombekhaya Vokozela, got under way at the Western Cape High Court yesterday.
The State alleges that Thembekile shot Ntombekhaya 12 times, with five of those shots to the back of her head, on December 28, 2013 – 20 days after she laid an assault case with the police.
Pathologist Mandy Date Chong testified yesterday that the gunshot wounds inflicted appeared to be “distance wounds” and were fatal.
Another witness, Noxolo Nkohla, a friend of Ntombekhaya, testified yesterday that Thembekile visited her eight days before Ntombekhaya was killed and told her to cut ties with his wife because she was the reason their relationship had turned sour.
“He asked that I delete her number from my phone and never again have any contact with her,” said Nkohla.
Nkohla said she last spoke to Ntombekhaya four days before the shooting, when Ntombekhaya called her to wish her a merry Christmas.
Prosecutor Lenro Badenhorst alleges that Ntombekhaya was last seen with Thembekile when they were at their liquor store on the day she was killed.
The following day the couple did not answer their phones, and in the evening, police found Ntombekhaya’s lifeless body on the ground level of their house. She had been shot multiple times.
The accused was found unconscious on the upper level of the house and was taken to hospital.
According to court papers, the accused made certain admissions, orally and in writing, regarding the death of Ntombekhaya.
Both hands of the accused tested positively for primer residue. The bullets removed from Ntombekhaya’s body were those of a 9mm calibre firearm and a .38.
A .38 firearm was discovered about three months later, hidden behind a drawer in the couple’s bedroom. The serial number had been removed.
Thembekile is a licence holder of a 9mm firearm, which was found at the crime scene.
The trial continues.