Pretoria - Former national head manager at Absa Stewart Lumka will on Thursday have to answer to charges that he was allegedly responsible for the attempted murder of his now former wife Elsie Lumka and the murder of her bodyguard.
Elsie was severely injured in March 2008 as she drove her car into the garage of their Crystal Park home in the East Rand where she and her husband lived before things went sour. Her bodyguard, Philip Lima, who was with her at the time, was shot twice in the neck and in the chest. He died in hospital.
Elsie was at the time a head national manager at Nedbank.
The State is claiming that Lumka conspired with someone to have his wife killed. It is claimed in the indictment before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that after their marriage had broken up, strange things happened to Elsie, which led her to obtain the services of a bodyguard. These include that some of her personal belongings were “sprayed with acid” and that her expensive car was tampered with.
While no one witnessed the gunman who pulled the trigger that night, the police did suspect Lumka. However, for unknown reasons, he was only arrested in 2018 -10 years after the incident.
He appeared before Judge Bert Bam yesterday where his legal team, consisting of a lawyer and two advocates, said they wanted to examine video footage of the shooting to prove he was not the killer.
It emerged that the incident was recorded on CCTV footage at the house, but the quality was so bad it was impossible to see who the gunman was. The State said it had at first wanted to use the footage, but abandoned that notion after an expert said the quality could never be improved.
But Lumka’s team said they wanted their own experts to examine the footage and to enlarge the images to prove he was not the man behind the gun.
They also objected that the State never investigated Lumka’s alibi for that night. It is claimed he was seen at a garage near the Bakwena toll plaza, filling his car with petrol.
Judge Bam refused to postpone the matter.
He said the State was not alleging that Lumka necessarily fired the shot, but that he allegedly conspired with someone to do the killing. The matter is standing down to Thursday for Lumka’s legal team to prepare for the trial.
The State said it had several witnesses who would take the stand.
It is not clear whether Elsie will take the stand, although her name is on the witness list.
The State, among others, stated in the indictment that Lumka used to lock his wife inside the house.
On occasion, it is alleged, he had ripped her shirt off her because
she did not prepare him food.
She eventually obtained an eviction order against him.
But it is claimed that he gained entry to the house and laced her belongings, including chairs and furniture, with acid.
Elsie was treated for acid burns and smoke inhalation.
It is also claimed that she had on occasion found him and some other people “crawling” in the yard, which triggered the alarm.