Durban – The four people on trial for the brutal stabbing and decapitation of Chatsworth mother Desiree Murugan were liars, a Durban High Court judge said on Thursday.
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 had been 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 selecting 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 on Thursday 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, despite it being objective evidence before this court. This shows the degree of dishonesty of Ndlovu,” the judge said.
The story told by Magwala, who also testified in court,was fraught with improbabilities, Judge Poyo-Dlwati said. She listed 17 specific items which she found “highly improbable”.
And the version put to the court by Mbili, the judge said, was also improbable.
“In my view, he lied before this court,” she said.
Speaking outside court, Murugan’s sister, Jennet, said she was relieved that the judge had “seen through their lies”.
But, she said, she was not happy that Gumede had been acquitted.
“I would have liked for him also to have been convicted. But I do understand, he had no role in the murder itself.”
She said the healing process was ongoing.
“We live life, we carry on but it hasn’t been easy – we haven’t healed, we haven’t forgotten,” she said.
“Everything is still very fresh.”
Sentencing will probably take place in April.