Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela, one of the four men accused of murdering billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana, was a man who liked to shop at upmarket clothing stores and he was a well known face at Sandton City, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria was told on Tuesday.
The manager of 69 Belmont - an upmarket men’s clothing store at Nelson Mandela Square, adjacent to Sandton City, Marco di Stefano, was one of the three witnesses called to testify on behalf of Mathibela, said Mathibela was a regular customer for years who enjoyed spending his money on nice clothing.
Di Stefano said he often saw Mathibela at his shop - and the latter also often bought clothes at other shops in the vicinity, which the tailor at 69 Belmont then had to later alter for Mathibela as he was such a small man and had one leg which was shorter than the other.
While he cannot remember if he saw him on the day of the killing, Di Stefano said Mathibela was a well known face there. He also testified that the beauty salon where it is claimed Mathibela and his co-accused watched Bozwana and his business partner Mpho Baloyi, is about a minute’s walk from 69 Belmont.
Mathibela called the witness in a bid to prove that the day he was seen at Sandton City on the day of Bozwana’s assassination, was just another ordinary shopping day for him.
It is claimed by the prosecution that on the day of Bozwana’s killing, Mathibela and his three co-accused - Sipho Hudla, Matamela Robert Mutapa and Bonginkosi Paul Khumalo were following Bozwana and Baloyi.
According to confessions by some of the accused - which they say are lies as they made them under duress from the police - they were following Bozwana and Baloyi on the morning of October 2 2015, and watched them as they had their nails done at a beauty salon at the shopping centre.
The pair were gunned down a few hours later as Baloyi, who was driving, turned down the N1 Garsfontein offramp. The wounded Baloyi managed to drive on and she went to the Glass Fit outlet in Garsfontein Road to seek help.
While she had survived, Bozwana died shortly afterwards in hospital.
As in the case of his co-accused, cellphone towers in the vicinity of the killing had picked-up Mathibela’s phone signal in the area shortly after the killing.
According to the prosecution, Mathibela watched from a distance that the “job was done” and he, according to the state, also watched the commotion at the parking lot of Glass Fit, near Menlyn.
A bank official from Standard Bank in Menlyn - the vicinity where one of the towers had registered Mathibela’s cellphone signal on the day of the incident, testified that he had three bank accounts with that branch and he often came into the bank.
She, however, could not say whether he was there on October 2, 2015.
The third witness, Malema Malatji, was one of Mathibela’s taxi operators. He testified that he always collected the week’s taxi wages and handed it over to Mathibela at Menlyn Steps - a taxi rank at the entrance to the shopping centre. According to him it was all in a day’s work for Mathibela to be in the area.
Pretoria News