Cape Town - For four years Xolile Mngeni flatly denied any involvement in Anni Hindocha’s murder, but a confidant has revealed that shortly before the gunman died he confessed to shooting the newlywed.
Now a former inmate has told how Mngeni killed Anni and was angry with himself for giving away the watch he had stolen in the attack because it was the piece of evidence he believed led police to him.
Mngeni allegedly resisted giving in to pressure to testify against British businessman Shrien Dewani and opted for a full trial, which carried with it the risk of a life sentence. Life is what was ultimately imposed and, while serving his sentence in Goodwood Prison, he encountered the now former nmate, who has asked not to be identified for safety reasons.
The former inmate, who provided Correctional Services documents showing he had been incarcerated at the same time as Mngeni, spoke out days before the case against Dewani was thrown out of the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
The State accused Dewani of having orchestrated his wife Anni’s murder in Khayelitsha on November 13, 2010, while they were on their honeymoon.
After battling extradition for years, Dewani was brought back into the country a few months ago.
He flew back to the UK on Tuesday after the case was thrown out.
The former inmate said that in June he and others in the Goodwood prison’s hospital wing were told an inmate who had a brain tumour and was linked to the Dewani case was to join them.
The inmate said he and Mngeni grew close as they shared stories about their backgrounds and what drove them to carry out crimes.
Mngeni died on October 18.
“We had a nice relationship. We did talk about our crimes, openly, but the other guys held back,” the former inmate said.
In the four months Mngeni was detained in the hospital wing, he rarely spoke about Anni’s murder, the former inmate said.
But he said Mngeni had told him taxi driver that Zola Tongo, who the State had claimed was the person Dewani hired to organise Anni’s murder, approached him with a “business proposal”.
Mngeni had been staying with his grandmother in Khayelitsha at the time.
The former inmate said: “(Mngeni) did say only one thing to me. He said the driver, Zola Tongo, got out. The other guy got in behind the wheel.
“(Mngeni) was doing the shooting work and did take the watch. (The police) caught his girlfriend with the watch. He said: ‘I’m so angry with myself. It’s such a small thing.”
The former inmate was referring to the allegations that Tongo was forced out the vehicle in which he had taken Dewani and Anni while in Gugulethu.
It was alleged that Mziwamadoda Qwabe and Mngeni then hijacked the vehicle, a crime the State accused Dewani of orchestrating, and that Dewani was then freed.
Qwabe allegedly then drove with Anni and Mngeni on the back seat. Mngeni shot her before they abandoned her body and the car in Khayelitsha. The former inmate said Mngeni told him investigators had wanted him to testify against Dewani and Tongo.
“(They wanted him to say) how the whole thing was set up and that Zola and Dewani gave them permission to do the job.”
Mngeni, who throughout his protracted trial denied any involvement in the murder, was convicted of killing Anni and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2012.
The former inmate said shortly before his death Mngeni had been under the impression he would be released on medical parole.
He said Mngeni had often seemed rattled when he noticed the Dewani case being reported on the news.
“You can see how it reflects on his face. He’s traumatised.”
He said at one point he had suggested Mngeni try to get in touch with Anni’s family and come clean.
“I told him, ‘Don’t you think you must put this chapter behind you and talk to these people and tell them (what) you did and ask for forgiveness?’ “
Mngeni didn’t act on this.
The former inmate said Mngeni’s health had deteriorated rapidly in the four months he was in the hospital wing.
“He was brushing his teeth with two hands. That last week he could not swallow or brush his teeth he was so weak. In time he couldn’t turn his body was so weak.”
Mngeni had often chatted about his children and had kept a single photograph of his family near his bedside.
“A week before he’s dying, he tells me, ‘I want to see my kids.’ That was his last wish. He didn’t see his kids,” the former inmate said.
He said he was speaking up about what had happened because he felt bad that Mngeni’s real story had not been made known.
Sunday Independent