THREE years ago, feared Mahlabathini taxi boss, “warlord” and ANC leader Elias “Sputla” Mpungose was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of a 14-year-old girl who was later murdered. A week ago he walked away a free man.
The girl Mpungose was convicted of raping, Celukuphila Mlambo, never got the chance to testify against him. Exactly six years ago tomorrow, on March 14, 2005, Celukuphila was gunned down in her home near Nongoma in northern KwaZulu-Natal, along with her mother, Bulawelani Myaka, and 13-year-old cousin, Sipho Ndawonde.
The Vryheid High Court heard during the 2007 trial how an AK-47 was used during the killings, which occurred a week before Mpungose was to stand trial. It was also told how the Myaka family had earlier turned down Mpungose’s offer of R10 000 or 10 cows to withdraw the rape complaint.
Mpungose was initially charged with three counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Mlambo, her mother, and her cousin.
But due to a string of discrepancies from witnesses testifying against him, the murder charges were subsequently dropped. Mpungose was only convicted of rape.
Mpungose was sentenced to life imprisonment by Judge Nick van der Reyden in 2007, in a high-profile case that was conducted amid tight security, including the hiring of personal bodyguards for the judge and for prosecutor advocate Cyril Selepi SC.
In sentencing Mpungose to life imprisonment for rape, Van der Reyden said a lesser sentence would have been inappropriate. “He must have felt so safe in his position of authority and power that he gave no second thought to raping this girl. It shows utter disregard and no respect for this young woman. She was nothing more than an object on which he could satisfy his lusts, and once he had, he discarded her like a rag.”
But Mpungose, 45, lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court of Appeals. Van der Reyden’s verdict was overturned last Thursday and Mpungose walked free.
While the latest court judgment has not yet been made available, the Myaka family has expressed dismay at Mpungose’s release. The family say that not only were they unaware the case was back in court, they felt let down by the justice system.
This week Mpungose, the man once described as an assassin by IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, proclaimed himself as a Christian, who sympathised with the Myaka family.
“I’m a man of God. If something emerges that troubles another person’s soul, let alone if people have died, I feel a lot of pain,” he told the Sunday Tribune from his Mahlabathini home this week.
“I cry with (the family) because they never found the person who did all this evil, which led to them losing family members.
“What was said about me, I trust that they have also seen the truth, that I’m not the one who did what was said. I trust that they will now see that the wrong person was arrested. As a believer, I sympathise with them.”
Mpungose outlined the key points that led to his acquittal, saying he felt vindicated.
Mpungose said, “The complainant, when she made her statement to the police, said the person who hurt her was light-skinned. I’m sure you can see I’m not light-skinned, and I haven’t changed. I was checked by the courts and found to not be light-skinned.
“She said the person who had hurt her had traditional scars – I was inspected in court, by the judges, by the prosecutor and investigators. They all came to me to check all these things and they found I had neither of those.
“The complainant said she was able to take down the registration of the car from the person who’d hurt her. She even said she wrote it down. She said that person had a VW Golf 4. I had a Golf 4, but the one she was talking about had registration plates that didn’t correspond with mine. The judge kept asking why this case was being pursued when so many aspects of it didn’t add up. But he still sentenced me. I was very surprised.”
Mpungose returned home to a hero’s welcome after serving three years of his life sentence at Ncome Prison. Throngs of friends, relatives and major players in the taxi business partied at his home on Thursday.
A former IFP member turned ANC regional leader, Mpungose is seen as an ANC trump card in Nongoma and Mahlabathini, the two IFP strongholds which have also been rocked by the formation of Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi’s National Freedom Party.
Mpungose vowed to continue with his political work in earnest and on Friday received a visit from a high-level provincial ANC delegation.
A traditionalist who has been “cleansing” himself since last week, Mpungose attributed his release to his “unbelievable luck” which he had inherited from his ancestors. Mpungose said he was planning to take legal action against the state for the conviction.
A controversial figure, Mpungose was out on R10 000 bail in connection with a taxi turf war killing when Celukuphila was raped. Mpungose was later acquitted of the taxi killing by Judge Jan Combrink.
Mpungose reiterated the argument he put forward during his rape trial – that he was a victim of a political conspiracy that arose out of his defection from the IFP to the ANC. He said after joining the ANC in 2004, he had often received calls from people warning him that if he didn’t go back “home” to the IFP “something” would happen to him.
“In Mahlabathini and Nongoma, there was no ANC. I was one of the first people who ensured the ANC had a presence here. When I left the IFP, its Nongoma and Mahlabathini leaders were unhappy. My relatives were persecuted.”
Mpungose was “overjoyed” at his release and has appealed to the public to accept the court’s latest decision. - Sunday Tribune