He told friends ‘he had shot a woman’

inlsa

LUNCH TIME: Xolile Mngeni, on trial for the murder of Anni Dewani, leaves the dock in the Western Cape High Court yesterday. Mngeni, who has a brain tumour, has been allowed to eat during court proceedings because he is sick. Photo: Brenton Geach

Caryn Dolley

THE day Anni Dewani was found murdered the alleged triggerman went to the V&A Waterfront with friends, bought himself name-brand clothing, had a meal, then later told his friends he had shot a woman.

“I thought he was joking,” a witness, a friend of Xolile Mngeni, who may not be named for fear of reprisals, testified yesterday.

The witness went on to say that Mngeni told them it was a woman he had shot.

Mngeni is on trial in the Western Cape High Court and has denied kidnapping, robbing and murdering Dewani on November 13, 2010, crimes which the State believes were orchestrated by Anni’s husband Shrien Dewani.

Yesterday the witness said after midnight, early on November 14, 2010, Mngeni had arrived at his shack in Khayelitsha while the witness was alone there.

He said Mngeni had been in possession of a brown Nokia cellphone and when the witness asked where he got it, Mngeni said he had picked it up in Ilitha Park.

After about 30 minutes, Mngeni asked the witness to accompany him to fetch his girlfriend in Y-section, Khayelitsha.

While the witness had slept over at a friend of Mngeni’s girlfriend, Mngeni and his girlfriend returned to the witness’s shack and slept there.

After 9am the witness woke up and walked to his shack. He met Mngeni on the way and Mngeni returned the witness’s shack key. After washing, the witness, Mngeni and a third friend met and took a taxi to the Waterfront where the witness bought himself a pair of white Adidas takkies.

Mngeni had given him R140 so he could afford the R500 takkies. The witness said Mngeni, paying in cash, had bought himself a pair of green Lacoste takkies which the witness thought had cost R750.

Mngeni also bought a K-Way jacket.

“We ate. After eating we went home,” the witness said.

At about 5pm, the witness met Mngeni in the street and later the third friend joined them. While walking together, the witness said: “[Mngeni] was telling [us] that he robbed a person of a phone in Ilitha Park. That he robbed a person and shot a person.”

The witness thought Mngeni was joking because “we liked misleading each other” and joking, and Mngeni had earlier said he had picked up the cellphone.

The witness, Mngeni and the third friend then each contributed R100 for liquor, which they drank.

The next day Mngeni again arrived at the witness’s shack. The witness and two girls were inside.

All four of them slept there, but in the early hours of the next morning, November 16, 2010, police arrived and arrested them.

“They [the police] found the Nokia under the mattress, the side on which [Mngeni] was sleeping,” the witness said.

He later identified a brown Nokia cellphone, previously handed in as evidence and believed to be Zola Tongo’s cellphone, as the same as the one Mngeni had said he picked up.

Shortly after Dewani’s murder, Tongo had pleaded guilty to his role in her killing.

The trial continues today.

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za