Wisani's defence takes a knock

Patrick Wisani allegedly beat his girlfriend Nosipho Mandleleni to death with a sjambok and broomstick. Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Patrick Wisani allegedly beat his girlfriend Nosipho Mandleleni to death with a sjambok and broomstick. Picture: Boxer Ngwenya

Published Oct 28, 2016

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Johannesburg - A witness testifying in defence of Patrick Wisani has unintentionally collapsed the murder accused’s alibi.

Wisani allegedly beat his girlfriend Nosipho Mandleleni to death with a sjambok and broomstick in September last year after returning from an ANC Youth League conference.

He was the ANCYL Joburg inner city chairperson at the time.

Andile Mlombo, who comes from Mpumalanga and attended the same conference in Midrand, testified in the high court sitting in Randburg on Thursday.

He told the court how, after the first day of the conference, Wisani assisted him in finding accommodation in Yeoville.

Mlombo claimed that they had arrived in Yeoville between 2am and 3am and it had taken them two hours to find accommodation before Wisani went back to his house.

But prosecutor Faghre Mohamed pointed out that cellphone records, which were undisputed by Wisani, showed that the murder accused had already been in Yeoville at 1.10am. “In your version, it took two hours to find accommodation.

“You also said that you accept the 1.10am according to the cellphone data. If you add two hours, it gives us 3.10am. It’s quite possible that at 4am, he (Wisani) could’ve been home already,” said Mohamed. Mlombo agreed.

Earlier in the trial, two State witnesses, Zukiswa Solani and Siphokazi Mandleleni, claimed they had heard the couple arguing loudly and Nosipho’s screams coming from Wisani’s bedroom in their communal house at about 4am.

Siphokazi, Nosipho’s twin sister, told the court that when she had knocked on Wisani’s door to investigate, he’d answered it with a broken, bloodied broomstick in his hand.

But another witness, Sanele “Small Boy” Fipaza, who testified in Wisani’s defence, claimed that Siphokazi had not been at the scene of the crime at all on the night of the murder.

According to Fipaza, they had spent the entire night drinking at other venues and he had not once let Siphokazi out of his sight.

“I’m putting it to you that that is highly improbable. Do you agree or disagree?” Mohamed asked Fipaza.

“It has happened,” Fipaza responded.

Judge Mohamed Ismail then asked: “Apart from this day... on what other dates were you looking at her, that you were so transfixed with her?”

Fipaza answered: “Every Friday and Saturday I’m looking at her.”

“So you do this every Friday and Saturday?” Judge Ismail asked, eliciting laughter from the people in the gallery.

“It’s not funny... So this wasn’t the first time? You were going out with her for 11 months... Every time you have a weekend with her, you only look at her, you never look at anything else?”

Fipaza conceded that he had been in the courtroom during the testimonies of Siphokazi and Solani.

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@Gabi_Falanga

The Star

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