‘I was set up,’ says ex-cop accused of killing her family
A FORMER police officer accused of killing her family to cash in on an insurance policy she had taken out said she had been set up by an ex-convict she once arrested.
In her defence, Rosemary Ndlovu told the Palmridge Magistrate's Court yesterday that she was set up by Njabulo Kunene who she had reconnected with through a friend.
Ndlovu was caught on camera telling undercover police officers how to murder her sister and the five children she was staying with in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.
Police arrested her at the taxi rank in Bushbuckridge and her house in Gauteng was searched and policy documents found.
Ndlovu told the court she was a psychiatry patient at a hospital on the East Rand and had been given a pass out of the ward in order to take the man she accused of setting her up to see a traditional healer in Bushbuckridge.
Magistrate Ramarumo Monama appeared agitated at Ndlovu, constantly reprimanding her for not responding to questions or giving theories which contradicted the version of events given by the hitmen she had hired.
Questioned about why she made the statements to the undercover police about the killing of her sister, Ndlovu responded: “Yes, you heard me correctly. That is what I said. I was giving those answers in the clip but I was responding in that manner because I was told that is how I am meant to reply even for that day.
“He told me this on the same day, on the 7th (March 2018)] after I met up with him at the gate of the hospital."
Ndlovu told the court she was told that the cops who were in the car that picked her from the hospital were thugs and she had to respond in a certain way so that they would take them to their destination.
“Njabulo and I stood there and had a discussion of how I should respond. He said the driver was a thug and he would agree to take us to Bushbuckridge only if he knew we were going to do something that would get us money. I was coached by Njabulo to reply in that manner,” Ndlovu told the court.
Ndlovu posed for pictures in the courtroom and made jokes with some photographers about taking them from the right side.
This got some in the gallery talking about how she seemed not to care about what was going on.
The court heard how Ndlovu had tried to get her sister killed and in some instances the plans failed. The plans that she had thought of included spiking her sister's drink and then having her strangled. Another was that she would die in a fire.
She also told the court she was not in debt as the hitmen claimed she was and that she would often help her family with money, She claimed that money that was used to buy the petrol that was meant to burn down her family's home had actually come from Kunene, and she was following instructions from him.
The court also heard that Kunene had given one of the hitmen R1 600 in Bushbuckridge and then asked for R200 to go back to the hospital she was admitted to in Gauteng.
She was also asked to comment on the bottle of petrol she had allegedly bought on the way to Bushbuckridge where her sister's house would be set alight.
The evidence presented in court was that she had bought the petrol for R29.
Ndlovu said the papers found at her house after her arrest were ID copies of people she was certifying documents for and a toxicology report.
She denied that there were medical records belonging to other people at her house.
The Star understands that Ndlovu is accused of killing several people using the same modus operandi and cashing in on their deaths.
It is believed that her boyfriend was among the victims and that she had benefited by more than R1 million.