Pretoria - Controversial Mamelodi businessman Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela also referred to as “Mamelodi’s No 1 Tsotsi” and his three co-accused were today convicted of the 2015 murder of billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana.
Gauteng High Court, Pretoria Judge Papi Mosopa also convicted the four of the attempted murder of Bozwana’s lover, Mpho Baloyi, as well as on a charge of the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Judge Mosopa convicted them on the doctrine of common purpose and found that the murder of Bozwana was premeditated.
The judge said it is not clear if the murder was planned months, weeks or days ahead, but it is clear that the plan was to murder him on the morning when Bozwana and Baloyi visited Sandton Square, where they went to a beauty salon.
Mamelodi businessman Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela after he and his three co-accused were today convicted of the 2015 murder of billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana. #Mathibela Bozwana @IOL #Crime #Murder #Court pic.twitter.com/AVPGCMYfCD
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While the state mostly presented circumstantial evidence, it was especially on the face of the cellphone records of Bozwana and the accused, as well as on the confessions by Mathibela’s three co-accused - Sipho Hudla, Matamela Robert Mutapa and Bonginkosi Paul Khumalo - that they were convicted.
The trial which lasted nearly five years spent a lot of time with evidence from cellphone experts, which placed the accused on the crime scene.
The judge said it is clear from the evidence that the cellphone devices of the accused followed Bozwana and Baloyi from where they were at Sandton Square on the morning of October 2 2015, up to where bullets were fired into the vehicle at the N1 Garsfontein highway off-ramp.
Judge Mosopa said the accused remained silent as they did not testify in their defence, which is their right. Yet, he said, they chose not to explain why they remained in the vicinity of Bozwana - from Sandton Square, up to where he was shot in the east of Pretoria, which is some distance from Sandton.
“They provided no explanation at all why they were there,” the judge said.
Cellphone records of Mathibela also proved that he and Khumalo spoke nine times shortly after Hudla and Mutapa (the first two to be arrested) were arrested about a month after Bozwana’s assassination.
In convicting them of Baloyi’s attempted murder, the judge said he is aware that Bozwana was the target, but the accused should have foreseen that she could also have been killed, as shots were fired at her vehicle, which is small.
As the judge analysed the evidence towards the end, which clearly pointed at Mathibela’s guilt, he sat with his head in his hands and was hardly visible in the dock.
The matter was meanwhile postponed to August 4 for sentencing procedures.
Pretoria News