Durban — The State has called a man charged with the murder and kidnapping of his brother-in-law a liar during his cross-examination in the Durban High Court.
On Monday Senior State prosecutor advocate Krishen Shah continuously told Nkosinathi Steve Zungu that he was lying as he questioned him over cellphone records handed in as exhibits.
Zungu is on trial for the murder of Transnet engineer Nkosi Timmy Langa who was allegedly kidnapped from his home in 2020 and killed in Ozwathini.
Langa’s wife, Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves, who is Zungu’s sister, allegedly hired Zungu and James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu to execute her husband’s murder.
Goncalves is on trial along with Zungu, while Mthimkhulu, who is a State witness, is already serving a 20-year jail sentence for his part in the murder.
“You told the court that accused two (Goncalves) paid money to Ramaphosa’s phone because your battery died. You lied, that’s a disgraceful lie. If you look at the exhibit you will see the date September 29, at 6.22am you were phoning your sister.
“If you look at that entire page there’s not a single time that your phone is off. That is a forensic piece of evidence. It’s objective and it shows that your phone was not off. In your evidence, you referenced a specific time when money was paid, at 8.12am, on the 29th. So you lied when you told us the reason why Goncalves sent money to Ramaphosa’s phone was that your battery had died,” said Shah.
Zungu explained that he had told his sister to transfer the money using Ramaphosa’s phone because his phone battery was “about to die”. However, Shah pointed out that this was another lie.
“If you look at the exhibit you will see from 6.22am until 11.21am you had been communicating with accused two (Goncalves). You have told so many lies … Nowhere does it show your battery was about to die or had died,” Shah told Zungu.
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