A convicted murderer could be Joburg’s vampire.
Mzameleni Cele, 32, drank his victims’ blood after killing them at the same tavern in the inner city - now he’s behind bars.
Cele, 32, was sentenced to 30 years in prison at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
He was found guilty of two counts of murder, two of attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, and one of assault with intention to cause bodily harm.
On Friday the court heard about Cele’s killing spree and his unusual ritual of drinking his victims’ blood. His first killing took place in September 2014 at a tavern in the Joburg inner city.
“He had an argument with Sabelo Ngobese, his first victim, produced a knife and stabbed him all over his body, killing him,” Acting Judge Rean Strydom said.
Cele is believed to have drank Ngobese’s blood then sprinkled snuff around his body in the presence of a State witness, Thembakwakhe Sibiya.
Then nearly a year later, Strydom said Cele went on a shooting spree at the same tavern. “In the early hours of the morning of August 1, 2015, Cele went to the tavern and started shouting, demanding a fight with all the patrons. A commotion started and he took out a firearm and started to shoot randomly then fled the scene,” said Strydom.
Later the same morning he returned, shot Mogoba Komane - a random patron in the tavern - in the chest killing and injured another man, Mnthandi Ngubane. After the shooting, Cele fled the scene and came back later to “lick Komane’s blood”, police said. Witnesses said that when he licked the blood, he said: “Let the dog die”.
Thirteen days later on August 14 he went back to the tavern, approached Sibiya, who was a witness to his first murder in 2014, and asked him for money to buy beers. Without any provocation, the court heard, Cele produced a firearm and fired several shorts at Sibiya’s head, injuring him severely and leaving him blind.
Then two days later he went to the workplace of an acquaintance of his, Khuzizwe Khumalo, in Doornfontein. He asked Velemseni Sithole where Khumalo was and when he told him Khumalo was not at work, Cele produced a knife and stabbed Sithole, injuring him.
Cele was eventually arrested in September last year. Police tracked him down to a hotel room in Hillbrow. He was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Cele’s lawyer Mlungisi Buthelezi said his client’s personal circumstances should be taken into consideration when he was given a sentence. “My client has 31 siblings since his father married five wives,” said Buthelezi. “He dropped out of school in Grade 11 because of financial difficulties and moved to Joburg from rural KwaZulu-Natal. He has three children and ran a spaza shop in Dube, Soweto, where he made a profit to feed his two daughters, aged 10 and 2 years old.” Buthelezi pleaded that his client receive an 18-year sentence because he was still young and could be rehabilitated.
However, Strydom said Cele acted with no provocation in all the charges against him and was a dangerous man. “Up to today the court has no idea why the accused committed these crimes.”
Thokozani Ngubane, whose brother, Sibiya, was killed by Cele in 2014 said his family was happy with the sentence.
Pretoria News Weekend