On September 1 last year, teenager Phindile Penelope Pompi thought she would be initiated into a gang robbing the wealthy living in Randburg - but instead she witnessed how a man was murdered and butchered.
Pompi, 18, was testifying on Wednesday in the Johannesburg High Court murder trial of six Roto Gang members - Paulos Mandlakayise Fakude, 34, Amos Roli, 41, Troy Donovan Cleaver, 24, Bongani Andrew Mtshali, 27, David Bakaqane, 27 and Thabo Masehela, 28.
The six - along with Welile Peter Govoza, who went missing two days after the trial began - are accused of murdering fellow gang member Sicelo Israel Mthembu on September 1 last year. He was then disembowelled and his genitals were cut off.
All have denied charges of murder, violating a corpse and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Pompi, a key state witness, gave a graphic account of the roles she said each of the accused had played in the murder and mutilation of Mthembu.
She also explained that she had been with Mtshali - cousin of the deceased - and Fakude when the pair dumped his body on a street in Rockville, Soweto, not far from the Regina Mundi Church.
The three of them waited until the next day to witness how his body was found, she testified.
Testifying about the events of that fateful night, she said: "I came to the Randburg veld for initiation (into the gang), to rob people living in big houses in the area. I was brought to the area by Paul (Fakude), who introduced me to members of the Roto Gang, including all the accused," Pompi said.
She described how she had smoked dagga while the others smoked Mandrax. All of them, including Mthembu - whom she had met for the first time - were seated around a fire until police dispersed them, but they later regrouped.
Pompi said that when they had gathered again she witnessed Mthembu and Mtshali in an argument a few metres from her.
While the two argued, she said, Roli - wearing a balaclava-like cap - stood behind the deceased and fired a shot at his head. Mthembu fell to the ground.
"While he was on the ground, I saw 'Nkosi' (someone named Nkosinathi, who was not charged with the offences) firing two shots towards him while he was lying there. And all of us shouted: 'The dog is dead'," Pompi said.
As Pompi spoke, Puseletso Namanyane, the mother of the dead man, and Cleopatra Mthembu, her daughter, sat in the gallery, listening attentively to the gory details.
Pompi said Mthembu's body had been loaded onto a trolley and taken to another spot, where it was cut open. When Pompi talked of Mtshali's role in mutilating the body, Namanyane stood up and left.
Pompi's evidence-in-chief continues.