Durban — The murder accused in a trial against a Pinetown nurse who is alleged to have hired hitmen to kidnap and kill her husband came under fire during his cross-examination in the Durban High Court on Thursday.
Nkosinathi Steve Zungu is on trial along with his sister Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves, charged with the 2020 murder and kidnapping of Nkosi Timmy Langa.
Goncalves is alleged to have hired Zungu along with James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu.
In his evidence-in-chief on Wednesday, Zungu told the court how he had phoned Langa asking to be picked up near Pinetown and taken to Inanda.
Zungu said he had been with Ramaphosa and Manzini, and that at some point before reaching their destination Langa no longer wanted to transport them, and it was at that point that Langa was taken against his will and the men continued travelling to an area in Ndwedwe.
He told the court that Langa had died after he had left him with Mxo and Madoda as he (Zungu) and Manzini went in search of diesel for Langa’s car.
He said that when they (Zungu and Manzini) were about to travel back to where Langa had been left they phoned the other men, who informed him that something had happened to Langa.
On Thursday under cross-examination by Goncalve’s counsel Siphelele Zwane, Zungu explained exactly what he was told transpired in the abandoned smoking house that he had left Langa in with Mxo and Mododa.
“Mxo said a mistake had happened, he said he (Langa) was fighting trying to free himself and run away, and in the process he got slaughtered. No one told me who did that. They said they held him and he fell and at that moment all they said was he got injured and that is how he passed away,” said Zungu.
Zwane questioned Zungu’s actions after he had heard that his brother-in-law had been killed.
“You leave your brother-in-law with strangers who are drunk and high – why would you do that? Why is it that you were comfortable leaving your brother? Subsequent to the deceased being taken against his will, did he have any conversation with you? Did you even care to go and check on your brother-in-law to see if he had really died?”
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