Durban — According to evidence that was led by an accused which the State successfully objected to as inadmissible as it was hearsay, Nkosi Timmy Langa sustained a concussion trying to get away and died.
This was what Nkosinathi Steve Zungu told the court before Senior State Prosecutor Advocate Krishen Shah objected saying that unless witnesses would be called to testify to this effect as well, this piece of evidence was inadmissible.
Zungu is on trial in the Durban High Court along with his sister Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves charged with the 2020 murder and kidnapping of Langa who was Goncalves’ husband.
Goncalves is alleged to have hired Zungu along with James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu.
Zungu told the court that Langa sustained a concussion trying to get away and subsequently died.
His evidence was that he had been in the Durban CBD with Mthimkhulu and another person called Manzini and they needed to get to Inanda.
Zungu said he phoned Langa, but to no avail. He said he phoned Goncalves who picked them up and took them as far as Pinetown.
He said that once in Pinetown they went to Parklands where Langa fetched them and took them to Inanda.
Zungu told the court that when they reached Mshayazafe, near an Engen garage, Langa did not want to go any further.
“Langa got out to urinate. Manzini said we are going to carry on with our journey; he instructed Nkosinathi to get into the back seat and he got into the driver’s seat,” he testified.
Zungu said Manzini drove the car to Ndwedwe where they met two people by the names Madoda and Mxo. By that time it was late at night and the vehicle’s fuel gauge light had come on.
“We left Madoda, Mxo, Langa and Ramaphosa in a house where Madoda smoked. Manzini and I drove around looking for diesel,” he testified.
Zungu testified that when they could not find diesel they phoned the others telling them to climb a hill to the top where they would pick them.
Zungu said that was when the others told them to not use the route they had used leaving the area as something had happened. Zungu’s inadmissible evidence was that once they picked up the others they relayed to him that Langa had tried getting away and ended up unconscious and dead.
“It is not true that Ramaphosa and I strangled the deceased. Even when he went with the police to point out the body, he mentioned my name but that was through anger he had towards me thinking I’m the one who pointed him out to the police. There was no plot to kill,” he said.
“It was unplanned, it was a mistake. Even during my arrest, I told cops when they were asking if accused No 2 was involved or if anything was planned. It was the police who were insisting that she was involved, asking why after their quarrel something like this happened,” Zungu testified.
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