Durban — According to the nurse charged in relation to the kidnapping and murder of her husband, on the day he disappeared, he left the house at night and had not told her where he was going.
Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves told the Durban High Court on Friday that her husband, Nkosi Timmy Langa, a Transnet engineer, had left their Pinetown home while she was in the shower.
Goncalves and her brother, Nkosinathi Steve Zungu, are on trial, and both face kidnapping and robbery with aggravated circumstances as well as murder charges, while Goncalves also faces two counts of defeating the course 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, after this, registered two false cases with police, one of a missing person and the other for a stolen vehicle.
Mthimkhulu’s evidence was that 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.
His body was found some time in November after being pointed out by Mthimkhulu. This was after police investigations led to the recovery of Langa’s car.
An ID book found in Langa’s car led police to the man who had taken it from Mthimkhulu and Zungu.
On Friday, Goncalves said that the day after she was assisted by Zungu after Langa had locked the gate leading into their home preventing entry, she got a phone call from her husband while in the company Zungu and Mthimkhulu in Kenville.
“He asked me about my whereabouts. I told him I was coming back. After he had asked me about my whereabouts, he said since you know I have locked the gate when you come back, don't come back with Nathi because yesterday you asked him to break in the gate, so don't come with him today. I asked him if he'd be home when I get there. He said yes,” she said.
Goncalves said that the next day after knocking off work, at some point, she got a call from Zungu, who wanted her to pick him and others he worked with from the Durban CBD, taking them to Pinetown.
She said that after she picked them up, she dropped them near a garage that is within walking distance to her home, and her brother had said they would contact Langa and ask him to help taken them somewhere they wanted to go.
Goncalves says that while at home, her husband, after being reluctant, eventually spoke to Zungu over the phone that night.
“I did not listen to their conversation because I busy with house chores. I think he then placed the phone somewhere and continued with the work he was doing because he was busy on his laptop while I was still in the shower. He called out for me, saying he is going somewhere. He is coming back. He didn’t say where he was going. He came back, and took the plastic with the new items, and left again. Even then, I didn’t ask him where he was going. He jumped into his car and exited premises and left,” she said.
The trial continues.
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