THE four people on trial for the stabbing and decapitation of Chatsworth mother Desiree Murugan were liars, a high court judge said in Durban yesterday.
Their evidence, Judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati said in handing down her judgment, was “false beyond reasonable doubt”.
Judge Poyo-Dlwati found all four guilty of murder. However, she acquitted the assistant of the traditional healer who commissioned the murder, who was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder.
“I was not presented with any evidence that shows that (he) did any act to assist (the traditional healer) to escape conviction on the charge of murder,” she said.
On August 17, 2014, Falakhe Khumalo, Jimmy Stanley Thelejala, Mlungisi Ndlovu and Mbali Magwala – all minors at the time – lured Murugan to a Shallcross sports ground, where she was stabbed 192 times and then beheaded. She was still alive when her head was severed.
Khumalo turned State witness and is currently serving a life term for his role in the murder. Traditional healer Sibonakaliso Mbili promised him R2 million for the head of an Indian, white or coloured woman.
Thelejala and Ndlovu helped him kill and decapitate Murugan while Magwala assisted in securing her as a victim and washed her head in a bucket after she was murdered.
Mbili’s assistant, Vusumuzi Gumede, as per the State’s case, helped them bury her head the next day.
Judge Poyo-Dlwati yesterday picked apart the accused’s evidence. Thelejala, she said, admitted he stabbed Murugan.
“He admits that all he did was voluntary,” she said. Ndlovu, who testified in court, lied, she said. He said that on the day Murugan was murdered, he went to school.
“It was brought to his attention that August 17, 2014, was a Sunday and he would not have been to school. He disputed this, which shows the degree of dishonesty of Ndlovu,” the judge said.
Sentencing will likely take place in April.