Durban — The State closed its case on Thursday in the trial against a Pinetown nurse alleged to have organised a hit on her husband after calling its final witness in the Durban High Court.
Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves and her brother, Nkosinathi Steve Zungu, 37, are on trial for the 2020 kidnapping and murder of her husband, Nkosi Timmy Langa.
When the trial resumes on Wednesday the defence is expected to present its evidence before Acting Judge Bonke Dumisa and an assessor.
After Senior State Prosecutor Krishen Shah closed his case, the counsel for Zungu, Jabulisa Malinga, indicated that he would be calling Zungu to take the stand and asked that the matter be adjourned for such.
Prior to this, the court had heard evidence from Mandisa Ngidi who had been with Zungu and another State witness and hit man James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu the day before Langa’s alleged murder.
Goncalves, out on bail, is alleged to have hired Zungu, who remains behind bars, to kidnap Langa from their Pinetown home and kill him.
The nurse and her brother are on trial for the murder and robbery, Goncalves faces two more charges, of defeating the course of justice for allegedly falsely reporting her husband missing and the theft of his car.
Mthimkhulu’s previous testimony was that Langa was killed with an electric cord cut from an iron in his home, put around his neck and Zungu pulled one end while he allegedly pulled the other. He was left in a forest in Ozwathini.
On Thursday on the stand, Ngidi – who was 16 in 2020 – said that she had been present when Zungu and Ramaphosa met Goncalves in her car. That was where she had shown the two men a picture of the target of the hit.
She said that day, which was a day before Langa was kidnapped, she had been drinking with Zungu and Ramaphosa and in the evening the two had taken her along to meet Zungu’s sister.
She said that earlier in the day Ramaphosa had taken her to meet Zungu who proposed love to her and that was when they began drinking together. She said that even before the alleged plan was executed attempts to find a buyer for Langa’s double cab Isuzu were made.
“Yes I spoke to accused two (Goncalves) when we arrived at the scrapyard and panel beater where the vehicle (Langa’s car) was going to be sold.
“When Nathi and Ramaphosa went into the panel beater I asked her what was the reason for her to want to kill him. She said he abused her and was beating her.
“I asked her why she had not opened a case and had him arrested. She said it’s not easy because he’s someone with a lot of money.
“I asked her if they have kids and she said yes they have one child and they are married.
“That is when I saw that the person she wants to be killed is her husband.”
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Daily News