Prosecutor trips up murder-accused DJ for lying under cross-examination
THE STATE has pointed out serious contradictions against murder accused and former Jozi FM DJ Donald Sebolai in a bid to cast doubt on his version of the events leading to his girlfriend’s murder.
Yesterday, the State asserted that there were no discrepancies between Sebolai’s testimony and the evidence he gave during his bail application in July last year.
Sebolai, 38, is on trial in the Protea Magistrate’s Court for the murder of his girlfriend, Rachel Dolly Tshabalala, 32, on June 29 last year. He also faces charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice. He pleaded not guilty.
He has been under crossexamination since Thursday. The words “shock”, “confused” and “can’t recall” were his responses to most of the intense questions asked by prosecutor Elize le Roux throughout yesterday’s proceedings.
Judge Cassim Moosa had to highlight to the accused the importance of answering questions put to him. Le Roux pointed out to Sebolai that he had lied during his bail application about some of the incidents, shortly after Tshabalala was stabbed.
In his testimony during his bail application, Sebolai told the court that Tshabalala allegedly fell after the steak knife they were fighting over penetrated her right thigh. He added that he picked up the knife and placed it on the sink or near the sink.
But yesterday, he said he couldn’t remember what happened to the knife.
“I was concentrating on the blood that was flowing from her thigh,” Sebolai said, adding that Tshabalala had bent over and did not fall to the ground, as he had said in his bail application.
In what seemed to be another contradiction of his own testimony, Sebolai told the court that the deceased had tried to stab him twice. But during crossexamination, he had said Tshabalala had attempted to stab him three times.
“Which version is correct?” Le Roux asked. Sebolai’s reply was that he couldn’t remember because he was intoxicated at the time.
The cause of Tshabalala’s death was severe blood loss and hypovolemic shock. But Sebolai said he wasn’t aware of that until he got to hear it in court. Le Roux put it to him that Tshabalala bled to death while he mopped up her blood on the floor.
Sebolai said his intention had been to take Tshabalala to the hospital shortly after cleaning as “she (urgently) needed the medical attention”.
He said Tshabalala’s bloodied gown, the towel he placed on her thigh, her pyjama trousers and the knife were taken to the car while she lay on the bed.
Asked why he did so, Sebolai said he wanted hospital authorities to observe through these items how much Tshabalala had bled and what caused the wound.
Tshabalala’s mother, Elizabeth Marawa, seemed angered by the testimony. She clicked her tongue and referred to Sebolai as “a liar”.
The trial continues.