Durban — Even though the nurse charged with the kidnapping and murder of her husband did not challenge previous evidence before the court – that he had seen flirtatious messages on her phone – she denied this fact on Tuesday during cross-examination in the Durban High Court.
Senior State Prosecutor Advocate Krishen Shah had put it to the accused, Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves, that just days before the disappearance of Transnet engineer Nkosi Timmy Langa the couple had quarrelled over a phone that he had found.
“The fight on the 27th was because the deceased had discovered you were flirting with someone on your phone called Austin whom he didn’t know. I want to suggest to you that you and the deceased were not happy with each other. In fact, you were both cheating on each other. I put it to you that the fight that happened on the 27th was after he discovered a phone that he didn't know about, and that was where he discovered that you were flirting with a person called Austin,” said Shah.
Goncalves maintained that the quarrel was never about flirting or any messages on the phone that had been found, adding that she did not know any Austin.
“At 10.30am on the 27th of September, you made a report at the police station about a fight that happened about a phone. At 9.30 your husband had made a report to the police that he found you flirting with a person called Austin. The deceased in his statement refers to Austin, flirting and a phone, and your statement also mentions an argument over a phone,” said Shah.
Goncalves explained that it was a coincidence that both their reports referred to a phone, and insisted that it had nothing to do with flirting.
Shah then asked whether Goncalves had heard the evidence of Sergeant Sbahle Nyathikazi in court that she had counselled the couple that morning and told the court how angry Langa was after a fight, and had not laid a hand on Goncalves, and had gone to report this to the police.
The nurse admitted that she had heard the sergeant’s evidence.
“If you heard all this why was it not disputed that you were flirting and you don't know Austin, that exhibit was handed into court. This evidence was led in the presence of your counsel and it was not challenged.”
Shah also put it to Goncalves that now she had painted a picture that she was an abused woman, and it was conceivable that she thought about killing her husband.
“No. I was abused, yes, thinking about killing him, not at all particularly because the abuse was not a secret. Although my husband was abusive he was trying. We were together trying to solve the problem in that we attended counselling, and we tried professional help. I know I am naturally a much forgiving person, I have a heart like that,” said Goncalves.
Langa had finished paying lobola for Goncalves and they were preparing for their wedding to take place in December.
Goncalves and her brother, Nkosinathi Steve Zungu, are on trial, both face kidnapping and robbery with aggravated circumstances as well as murder charges, while Goncalves also faces two counts of defeating the ends of justice.
The nurse is alleged to have hired Zungu, along with James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu, who is a State witness in the matter and is already serving time for his part in the crime.
On September 29, 2020, Langa was allegedly forced into his Isuzu X-Rider at his home near Hampshire Place in Pinetown and taken to a forest in Ozwathini by Zungu and Mthimkhulu.
Goncalves thereafter registered two false cases with police, one of a missing person and the other for a stolen vehicle. Mthimkhulu’s evidence was that Langa was killed with an electric cord cut from an iron in his home.
It was put around his neck and Zungu pulled one end while Mthimkhulu allegedly pulled the other. His body was allegedly left in the forest.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News