Durban — Attempts to get the pre-trial conference of two men where a woman was tied up and strangled to death during a home robbery in Molweni concluded were unsuccessful as some documents still needed to be completed.
This emerged on Friday (July 21) in the Durban High Court where Siphosethu Dlamini and his co-accused Sboniso Blessing Mthembu appeared before Judge Peter Olsen.
They are charged with the murder of Ntombifuthi Wendy Zulu who was killed in October last year and her car was stolen.
The two had last appeared on Tuesday where it was meant for a pre-trial conference to be heard at that time the State indicated that one of the accused wanted to plead adding that it expected papers concerning to have been dealt with by the next court appearance.
In court on Friday State Prosecutor Denardo Macdonald asked that the matter be adjourned for “necessary arrangements” to be made for certain documents in relation to the pre-trial.
Judge Olsen agreed saying that: “I don’t think we should deal with trial readiness at this stage. The matter is adjourned for next Friday (28 July), the accused are remanded in custody.”
The State in the matter says that Zulu and Mthembu resided in the Nogxaza area, Molweni, Hillcrest and Dlamini resided in the Kwadabeka area.
“Sometime prior to the incident the accused conspired and planned to rob and kill the deceased to steal from her a vehicle and other items. On Thursday the 20th of October 2022 Mthembu set out to execute their plan. He forcefully gained entry into the home of the deceased and lay in wait for her return from work. On entering her home the deceased was accosted by Mthembu, bound and strangled. He then proceeded to remove items from her home and made off with her vehicle.”
It’s further alleged that Mthembu then met with Dlamini and the vehicle was handed over to him.
“The following day and after changing the vehicle number plates the accused proceeded to a mechanic in order to remove the fitted tracking device but were without success. Members of the SAPS arrived and Dlamini was arrested whilst Mthembu made good his escape. At a subsequent post-mortem examination, it was recorded by Dr Nonhlanhla Shamase that the cause of death was noted as consistent with manual strangulation. At all material times hereto the assailants acted in concert and in the furtherance of the execution of a common purpose to commit the crimes,” alleges the State.
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