Durban - Mpumelelo Sindane, 67, on Thursday pleaded not guilty to killing a man he described as his friend and employer.
Instead, he pleaded guilty to assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and theft.
However, the State did not accept this plea and continued with the trial in the Durban High Court before Judge Dhaya Pillay.
Dressed in blue overalls and walking with the aid of a walking stick, Sindane stood in the accused dock as his plea was read out to the court by his Legal Aid attorney, Pregasen Marimuthu,
He claimed he had worked as a gardener for Isipingo pensioner Nadarajan Nayager from November 2014, and said he was owed in excess of R19 000, according to his calculations.
He said on January 13, both he and Nayager, 65, had argued over his payment.
Sindane said Nayager had just returned from a trip to Cape Town, and he enquired into the cost of the trip.
When he learnt of the amount, he said Nayager could have paid him that amount instead.
They argued and Nayager apparently told him to finish cleaning the yard and that his daughter would pay him the money when she returned from work.
Sindane alleged Nayager told him to take the money and leave or he was going to shoot him.
Doubting the sincerity of the payment, Sindane approached Nayager two more times about the money.
“I felt hurt that the deceased threatened to shoot me… I could hear the deceased passing remarks of about how ungrateful I was. I saw a piece of square metal tubing under the wash basin. I picked it up and went to the deceased, who was in the kitchen,” Sindane said in his guilty plea.
They argued again, he said. When Nayager walked to his room, Sindane said he followed him, thinking Nayager was going to fetch his gun.
“I hit him on his back and on his side a few times. The deceased turned around and we grappled with the metal tubing. I overpowered him and struck him a few more times. The deceased then fell against the television set and its stand,” he said in his plea.
Sindane said Nayager stumbled onto the bed and he tied Nayager’s hands with a cellphone charger cord and a shirt that was on the bed.
Sindane claimed he did this to subdue Nayager, because he believed Nayager’s threat of shooting him.
“I struck the deceased out of anger and hurt. I was really close to him and I believed that he would have been more considerate to my needs. My actions were irrational and fuelled by emotions,” he said.
Sindane claimed Nayager was alive when he left the room.
He said he saw Nayager’s cellphone in the kitchen and took it. He then locked the door and gates as he left.
Sindane was arrested the next day by Detective Warrant Officer Rajen Nagesar and the police provincial task team.
State advocate ZG Mshololo told the court the State would be relying on the evidence of eye-witnesses and the confession Sindane made to the police.
Nayager’s daughter, Devaloshni, testified that Sindane was not employed as their gardener, saying he first came to their house years ago begging, and had returned each day since then.
“He would just spend time at the house, with no valid reason for him to be there,” she testified.
She said he would sometimes sweep up the fallen leaves in the yard to keep himself occupied. She also said they would provide him with meals daily, and that he had become her father’s friend, who kept him company.
She had discovered her father’s body when she returned from work.
The trial continues.
Daily News