Durban — A former Hawks Sergeant while on the stand in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on Thursday under cross-examination in the trial within a trial in relation to the murder and attempted murder of two Phoenix Police sergeants said one of the accused was continuing to lie to the court.
Brothers Nkosikhona and Kusakwendoda Luthuli are alleged to have shot and killed Sibongile Thelma Mbanjwa in 2021 when she had been with her co-worker and lover Sergeant WS Dlungwana in a parked vehicle on Ndwedwe Road in Verulam.
In October the trial against the brothers began where evidence was led including statements the brothers had made confessing to the murder and attempted murder as well as an attempted robbery with aggravated circumstances.
After the brothers disputed their confession statements the matter was forced to have a trial within a trial, looking at the validity of these statements.
Mhlangu, now no longer working for the State, on the morning after the evening the two accused were arrested, took down their warning statements at the Durban North Police Station.
Yvonne Singh who is representing Kusakwendoda put to Mhlangu that her client would deny making the statement to him, deny the contents and deny the words related in the statement saying that was not what he had said to him.
“He will concede that there was an interview where he explained where he was on that night and where he was travelling to when he stopped on the way to urinate, everything else in the statement he didn’t say that to you,” she said.
Mhlangu after this told the court that Kusakwendoda was continuing with lying to the court adding that on that morning it was his first time seeing the accused and he (Mhlangu) did not know the scene of the crime where Kusakwendoda had placed himself in the statement he had made.
“In the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on the day of his bail he said he had no other cases against him, however investigations showed that he had other serious cases against him to such an extent he abandoned his bail, he is continuing with lying to the court,” said Mhlangu.
He said on the day while taking down the men’s warning statements, he had to stop as the two were going into the merits of the incident implicating themselves. He explained to them that (he) was not a commissioned officer to take that kind of statement and had to get someone more senior than himself.
On Tuesday when the matter continues the captain who took the confession of one of the accused was expected to testify.
The men’s argument in the trial within a trial was that they were assaulted following their arrest in oThongathi before they were taken to the Durban North Police Station where their statements were taken.
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