Chonco gets new nickname
HE’S been accused of being a serial murderer, rapist and housebreaker, and now Mkhululi Chonco has earned another title – suspected escape artist.
Chonco has been the subject of a marathon criminal trial at the Joburg High Court for an alleged crime spree between December 2013 and May 2014.
Targeting Jeppestown, Malvern and Fairview, Chonco’s typical modus operandi was to break down doors of people’s homes in the middle of the night and rob them, threaten to kill or rape them and, during certain of the incidents, carry out his threats.
While it seems he has been temperately behaved throughout the trial, at a previous appearance in June, he used the Saturday Star’s previous coverage of his case as an excuse to fire his lawyer, advocate Mlungisi Buthelezi. Chonco claimed his lawyer should have stopped the publication of the piece. Chonco then said he wanted new representation.
It was directly after firing Buthelezi that Chonco was taken down into the police cells, where it’s understood he managed to smuggle in a saw or similar cutting tool and broke through the locks on his shackles.
According to sources at the Department of Correctional Services, Chonco managed to escape from the court cells and made it all the way to a staircase leading out of the building before he was caught.
At his most recent appearance on Monday, Chonco was surrounded by an extra security detail, as he consulted with his new advocate from Legal Aid South Africa, advocate Anton Lerm.
The case was postponed to allow Lerm to familiarise himself with the matter through a study of the massive court record, though the record had not been provided as of Monday afternoon.
The State’s final witness, Captain Elmarie Myburgh, had analysed Chonco’s patterns of behaviour and the way in which he allegedly would try to intimidate or kill his victims.
Chonco has pleaded not guilty to all 128 charges against him and had been expected to take the stand on the day he fired his previous lawyer.