Cop says he’s given rapper a lift before

THE YEOVILLE-based cop accused by Pitch Black Afro, born Thulani Ngcobo, of coercing him to confess to a crime has sought to convince the court the famous rapper manufactured evidence indicating that they were unfamiliar with each other.

Sergeant Lufhuno Brian Sono told the South Gauteng High Court yesterday that he too was well-known, so Ngcobo already knew him when they interacted at the Yeoville police station on January 10 last year.

As part of his evidence in the trial within a trial intended to determine the admissibility of his confession indicating that he killed his wife Catherine Modisane at a Yeoville B&B on December 31, 2018, Ngcobo recalled Sono as the burly officer who boasted to him about his involvement in the Rhodes Park murder-by-drowning and rape case.

Ngcobo’s evidence was that Sono was one of six officers who ganged up on him at Yeoville police station in a bid to force him to confess.

Sono told the court that Ngcobo knew him and of his involvement in the Rhodes Park case before 10 January 2019.

Sono submitted that he spoke to the rapper about the case when it was still on trial.

He said the conversation happened in his car, after he gave Ngcobo and his wife a lift from Yeoville to Bez Valley.

Ngcobo, speaking through his lawyer Rian Greyling, questioned why he would ask for a lift from a complete stranger.

Sono answered: “I was not a stranger to him. I’m also well-known, so I was not a stranger.”

Sono rejected Ngcobo’s submission that he presented him with a confession statement to sign during an interview by six officers at the Yeoville police station.

Pitch Black Afro submitted that despite being handcuffed behind the chair and having his hands stepped on and threatened with not being handed back his burial insurance documents to sign, he refused to sign this statement.

“The accused was told to indicate that he assaulted the deceased,” Greyling put it to Sono.

Sono said this was not true. “You also told the accused he must not try to fool you, you are not a stupid,” Greyling said.

“That’s not true,” Sono responded. The case continues.