Johannesburg - An inquest into the death of suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli's love rival had to determine whether he made threats against the man's family, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
“The court will have to determine if a threat was made and we need to know where it was made,” Ike Motloung told the Boksburg Magistrate's Court.
Motloung was cross-examining Oupa Ramogibe's mother Sophia, who testified on Monday.
Asked what Mdluli said when he went to her house looking for her son, Sophia answered: “I will look for him myself and you will mourn for him.”
Seeking clarity on the reply, Motloung asked: “Why mourn? When you said yesterday he would kill him? Is it the same as saying you will mourn for him?”
Sophia responded: “I regard that as the same word.”
On Monday, the inquest heard that Mdluli went to Sophia's house in 1999 and asked where Oupa was. He told her Oupa had run away with his wife Tsidi Buthelezi.
On Tuesday, Motloung wanted to know why, if Sophia was scared of Mdluli, she had gone with him to look for Oupa. Sophia said she went with him because she was afraid.
He suggested it was common among black people that when someone interfered in a relationship, the parents intervened.
Sophia agreed and said she would have told her son to leave Buthelezi alone.
Motloung then argued that if Mdluli were to testify, he would say that Sophia was not afraid and suggested going with him to find Oupa.
Sophia disagreed and said she accompanied him because she was afraid.
Mdluli had been accused of the murder with Samuel Dlomo, Colonel Nkosana Sebastian Ximba, and Lt-Col Mtunzi-Omhle Mthembeni Mtunzi, but the charge was provisionally withdrawn in February pending the outcome of the inquest.
Also withdrawn were charges of intimidation, kidnapping, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. - Sapa