Only she knows why she killed him
THE trial of a Pinetown woman who hired two hitmen, including her brother, to kidnap and kill her husband has ended without the husband’s family knowing why she wanted him dead.
Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves, who Acting Judge Bonke Dumisa found to be the mastermind, and her brother Steven Nkosinathi Zungu were convicted of the murder of Nkosi Timmy Langa.
Goncalves, a nurse, was also convicted of defeating the ends of justice for falsely reporting her husband missing to the Pinetown SAPS and reporting his vehicle had been stolen.
Speaking outside the court following the conviction, Goncalves’ sisterin-law Zodwa Langa said: “We are still left with the question of why. When she took the stand and it was her turn to present her case we had thought this question would be answered but she said nothing about that. She is the only person who knows why she did it. All we can do is speculate.”
She said the family suspected that money was the motive for Langa’s kidnapping and murder.
On September 29, 2020, Langa was allegedly forced into his Isuzu X-rider at his home near Hampshire Place in Pinetown and taken to a forest in Ozwathini, an hour away from Pinetown, by Zungu and James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu, who turned State witness and is already serving time for his part in the crime.
Langa and Goncalves were in their home when the men barged in and kidnapped him. The men obtained Langa’s PIN to his bank cards that were in his car, and threatened to kill him if he gave them the incorrect information. Evidence led in court during the trial by Mthimkhulu, who is serving 20 years, was that while in Langa’s house, they yanked a cable cord from an iron and used it to kill Langa.
The cord was tied around Langa’s neck when they were in the dense forest and Mthimkhulu pulled one end while Zungu pulled the other, strangling the father of one to death.
Zodwa Langa said: “When she was arrested, we were left connecting the dots when it came to motive. We suspected it could be for an insurance policy. When he was alive his ID vanished and he went to have a new one done and then at some point the lost ID resurfaced but went missing again.
“Nkosi was employed at Transnet. She could have killed him to access his provident funds. She knew that in the event of his death as his wife and mother of his child, any funds coming from Transnet would fall into her hands.”
Senior State Prosecutor advocate Krishen Shah told the court that the cellphone records of Mthimkhulu reflected an SMS and a phone call from Goncalves after Langa had been taken from his home.
Mthimkhulu’s evidence was that the SMS was to tell them not to withdraw cash from Langa’s account at ATMS in Durban, followed by a 20-second call from Goncalves, asking them how it was going and whether they were finished with Langa.
Zodwa’s evidence in court was that on October 1, 2020, they grew suspicious when Goncalves arrived at their family home to report that Langa could not be found. She uttered the words “I loved Nkosi”, but had not reported him missing to the police.
“We contacted Transnet, asking to freeze any funds while police investigated Nkosi’s kidnapping and his murder. We did not want those funds falling into the wrong hands. We asked that the funds be frozen until the trial had been finalised,” Zodwa said outside court.
In his judgment, Judge Dumisa said it was clear from the evidence that Goncalves was the mastermind.
“She was very manipulative and a very good actor, arriving at the Langa house with a flushed face like she was crying, demonstrating someone who was very worried but that very person made a call to Mthimkulu asking if the job had been done.
“One must observe that even the most effective con artists make mistakes as we have seen with Thabo Bester. He made the mistake of being seen at Woolworths with Magudulela and this revealed that he did not die in the cell in Mangaung. The same can be said for Goncalves who raised the suspicion of Zodwa Langa and their mom when she said ‘I loved Nkosi’, talking about him in the past tense,” said Judge Dumisa.
May 23 was set as the date when sentencing proceedings will start.