Rhodes Park accused may have used toy gun

Thabo Nkala, Edmore Ndlovu and Mduduzi Lawrence Mathibela are in the dock for the rapes and murders of two couples in Rhodes Park. File picture: Simone Kley

Thabo Nkala, Edmore Ndlovu and Mduduzi Lawrence Mathibela are in the dock for the rapes and murders of two couples in Rhodes Park. File picture: Simone Kley

Published Nov 17, 2016

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Johannesburg - A witness has testified at the High Court, sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s court, that one of the Rhodes Park accused gave him a toy gun to keep at his house.

Comment Malinga took the stand on Thursday and testified against the three men who allegedly attacked two couples in Rhodes Park in October last year.

Thabo Nkala, 25, Edmore Ndlovu, 23, Mduduzi Lawrence Mathibela, 32, were allegedly part of a gang that forced the husbands into the lake where they drowned and then they allegedly sexually assaulted and raped their wives.

Malinga said he had been staying with Ndlovu for two years but only knew him as Jeje. He told the court that he got acquainted with Nkala through sharing drinks around Yeoville, and knew Mathibela because he used to come and visit a man who owned a scrap yard where he stayed.

“I knew about the Rhodes Park rape and murder crime after watching the news and I asked Jeje if he knew something and he said he doesn’t know anything but Mdu knows something.”

“A couple of days later Mdu came and asked me to keep a toy gun for him because he wants to go to Rocky Street. I took it and hid it in my bedroom. When he returned and I heard him talking with Jeje outside and I asked Mdu what does he know about the incident which took place in Rhodes Park. He didn’t answer me and took his jacket and left.”

Prosecutor Mutuwa Nengovhela asked Malinga what the toy gun looked like.

“It was black and looked real, it’s until when you hold it and realise that it’s not real,” he said.

Malinga said he was subsequently arrested for shoplifting and after he was released from prison, Mathibela came to his place accompanied by police looking for the toy gun.

“When I was arrested I left the toy gun in my house and probably my kids took it and played with it because I couldn’t find it.”

Lawyer Portia Phahlane, acting for Mathibela, said his client denied giving Malinga a toy gun because the two were not friends and he wouldn’t trust him to that extent.

Malinga then pointed out a police officer who was present in court as the one who came with Mathibela to look for the toy gun.

Robert Xaba for Ndlovu said his client also dismissed Malinga’s testimony and said Malinga had a grudge against him because while he (Malinga) was in prison, the accused had an affair with his wife.

Malinga, however, refuted Ndlovu’s claims.

Earlier, state witness Shohen Rana who owns a cellphone shop in Yeoville told the court that on the evening of the incident, as he was closing his shop, three or four men sold him a cellphone which he bought for R320.

“The phone was a Nokia Lumnia and I told the men I’ll buy it for R300 and one of the men said I should add R20, so I bought the cellphone for R320. And they told me that they had a gold ring and asked if I want to buy it. I told them I don’t want it, they also told me they had a gun and I told them I don’t want it.”

Rana said a couple of days later one of the men came with police looking for the phone but he had sold it.

However, Rana failed to identify the accused men in the dock. But he told the court that he knew one of the men who came to his shop that night.

The matter was adjourned until Thursday afternoon.

African News Agency

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