Johannesburg Two-and-a-half years have passed since Mondli Mbhele learned he was going to be assassinated. He had been introduced to two men who worked for suspected gang boss Radovan Krejcir and a few months later had unwittingly discovered the automatic weapon they had used to murder one of his enemies - hidden in the roof of his Kempton Park home.
This week, he took to the stand in the Kagiso magistrate’s court near Krugersdorp to testify against the two men, Siboniso Miya and Nkanyiso Mafunda, as well as the suspected hit man they allegedly hired, Sakhile Bhengu.
Mbhele told the court he had met Miya and Mafunda through his own employer in November 2013 and the two men had lived at his home for a few months.
When he went on holiday in December, he left them to stay at his home, two months after they had allegedly been involved in the killing of suspected Bedfordview drug kingpin Sam Issa, who, it’s understood, had a rocky relationship with Krejcir.
According to Mbhele, a short while later in 2014, he received a call from Mafunda saying some men were going to be coming to his home to pick up two weapons, an AK47 and a handgun.
He was told the guns had been placed in his ceiling and he was to hand them over in a bag to the men when they arrived.
However, rather than comply with Mafunda’s orders, he chose to take the weapons to the police.
After Miya and Mafunda were arrested, Mbhele was asked to testify against them in the High Court for Issa’s murder, as investigators believed the AK47 had been used as the murder weapon. It was only in mid-2015 that Mbhele was approached by the colonel investigating the numerous cases against Krejcir, Bongani Gininda, who said he believed Mbhele’s life was in danger.
Mbhele had realised he had been followed by a suspicious vehicle that same week. soon afterwards, Bhengu was arrested in a major operation at the Shell Ultra City on the M2 highway, taken into custody as he tried to escape from the filling station’s Steers restaurant.
It’s understood that Mbhele wasn’t the only witness in the Issa murder trial who Bhengu had been hired to kill. The Saturday Star has learned that the BMW Bhengu had been driving had been purchased in Miya’s name, with investigators discovering the VIN number on the car had been cloned from another vehicle stolen in Durban.
While the trial against the three men began in December 2015, the case has been scuppered by numerous applications and legal representative changes by the accused.
It has also only been heard during the court recesses, as prosecutor Lawrence Gcaba is also working on the Issa murder trial during the court term - a trial that has also seen multiple delays.
The trial continues.
Meanwhile, Mafunda and Miya are on trial alongside Krejcir at the High Court in Joburg for Issa’s murder.