Baby-snatching: 2 appear in court
‘Wisani’s arrogance haunts me’
THE MOTHER of the young woman allegedly murdered by Patrick Wisani is still so traumatised by her child’s brutal death that she can’t sleep at night.
Noxolo Mandleleni spoke to The Star yesterday at the high court sitting in Randburg, where Wisani’s trial is under way.
Mandleleni’s daughter Nosipho was beaten to death with a sjambok and a broomstick at a Yeoville house in September last year.
After going through a string of lawyers, Wisani elected to defend himself during the trial. Noxolo said the arrogance of her deceased daughter’s lover haunted her.
“What makes me angry is that he has this pride. He doesn’t act like someone who has done something wrong. He doesn’t feel ashamed,” said the distraught woman. “Those things make me so angry. I can’t sleep at night when I come (back) from court.”
Noxolo left her home at the village of Whittlesea in the Eastern Cape to attend the trial. “I will come here every day until it’s done. It’s very difficult but I just force myself (because) I want to know the truth. I’ll always have that picture of my child in my head.”
Yesterday, three police officers gave more details on evidence collected at the crime scene. During the testimony of police photographer Constable Sibusiso Shongwe, it emerged that some of the key evidence at the crime scene had been hidden away, presumably by the murderer.
Prosecutor Faghre Mohamed asked: “Was the sjambok visible to anybody who entered the room?”
Shongwe responded: “You wouldn’t have seen it because for me to see it, I had to climb onto a chair and it was hidden up inside the wardrobe.” He said a bloodied vest and jersey had also been hidden out of sight at the back of the wardrobe.
On Wednesday, Wisani accused police officer Captain Nomonde Qilingana of tampering with evidence at the crime scene.
The trial was set to continue today, with two more police officers and a technical expert from a cellphone service provider expected to testify.
@Gabi_Falanga A YOUNG mother told the high court in Pretoria of her anguish when her baby was snatched from her back while she was walking in a Brakpan street on her way to church.
The mother, who cannot be named to protect the child, was testifying in the trial of Kingsley Nnadi, 33, and Thapelo Mthapo (no age given), who are facing an array of charges following the alleged baby-snatching in January 2014.
She saw a man following her that morning. She then noticed a car moving across the road to her side. A man grabbed her and she fell to the ground. He tried to carry her to the car but she refused to budge. He then grabbed the baby.
“They sped off in a car with my baby. I screamed: ‘My baby! My baby! They stole my baby!’. I thought I would never see her again.”
About a month later, police phoned her to say they had found her baby.
“She was a big baby, but she had lost weight by then. I had breast-fed her before, but she no longer wanted my breast.”
Nnadi’s girlfriend, Jabulile Masombuka, 23, has pleaded guilty to snatching the baby and later hiding 10 packs of drugs in the child’s nappy. She received a 10-year sentence and agreed to testify against her boyfriend and his friend, who pleaded not guilty.
Masombuka has told Judge Eben Jordaan that she used to work as a drug runner for her boyfriend because she needed money. Her boyfriend had often assaulted her as she could not bear him a child.
She said her boyfriend told her they had to steal a baby and he made the arrangements with two of his friends. The police found the snatched baby in the couple’s flat by chance during a drug raid.
Her boyfriend denied any knowledge of the baby snatching. The trial continues.