NELSPRUIT – DNA samples have linked a Mozambican national to a farm murder which took place during an armed robbery in Malalane six years ago.
Mr Lorenzo Gideon Mazunze (33) was arrested on February 22, 2008 following the shooting and murder of a farmer during an armed robbery at the Beintjies family farm in Malalane. He is also linked to 14 other cases including house and farm robberies, murder, possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition, and was not asked to plead when he recently appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court.
Testimony brought in court by Capt Louis Christopher van Stander states that blood samples taken from the suspect and his co-accused who was not in court, have linked Mazunze positively to the Beintjies farm attack in Malalane on February 22, 2008.
Van Stander told the court that from August 2007 police received a number of house and farm robberies complaints from areas around Malalane, which stopped shortly after Mazunze’s arrest in 2008. He also testified that on the day of his arrest, Malalane police received a call from a motorist about a wounded man who was lying next to the N4 route.
“On arrival, I found the suspect, who was bleeding from a bullet wound. He was lying about half a kilometre from the Beintjies farm. He told me he had been shot by certain motorists while he was hitchhiking,” he said. Van Stander testified that after searching the suspect, he found a familiar wallet with old South African bank notes dating to the 1970s and 1980s.
“On the wallet was written Auto Zone. It was linked to another robbery at another farm. It contained old South African bank notes – R10s, R5s and R1s. There was also another R5 000 Mozambican bank note. After I went to the Beintjies farm to investigate, I discovered there was another person who had been shot dead,” Van Stander testified.
He said the farmer’s wife admitted it was her wallet that was found in the suspect’s possession and that police had also found a small bag and clothes which were stolen from the farm that night.
“After a follow-up investigation, another farmer’s wife from another property said the bank notes had signatures of the signatures of GP de Kock and TW de Jongh and that they belonged to her. The suspect was also positively linked to two more farm robberies in the Barberton area,” he said.
Van Stander said he had discovered that the suspect had been shot during an exchange of gunfire between him and the Beintjies farm owners on February 22.
He also testified that the suspect’s blood samples were sent to Pretoria Laboratory for testing on March 28, 2008, and positively linked the suspect to other cases of house and farm robberies around Malalane and Barberton.
Magistrate Mr André Geldenhuys postponed the case to April 16.
