A judgement in the murder case involving a 72-year-old man from Selawa village, Giyani, who was found dead in March 2012, was set aside to be reviewed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) last week, after state witnesses gave conflicting evidence against the accused, Masenyani Ngoveni (57), also known as Bolight.
Ngoveni was linked to the murder by the first accused, Jurish Maluleke, who died before the trial began.
The 72-year-old man’s naked body was found dumped in some bushes. His hands were tied behind his back, and it was later ascertained that he had been strangled.
According to the information that emerged in court, after the discovery of the elderly man’s body residents held several meetings to try and find out who had been involved in the murder. It was in these meetings that the first accused, Maluleke, was implicated. The reason he was implicated was simply that, as village crier, it was his duty to ring a bell and announce any new development in the village. However, he had reportedly not done so when the 72-year-old man’s death was discovered.
The court further heard that residents confronted him and he later identified Ngoveni as an accomplice in the crime.
Maluleke died before he could testify in court.
Ngoveni’s attorney, Arthur Nkuna argued in court that his client was innocent since there was no direct evidence linking him to the murder except rumours from the community that he was involved.
“Your worship, the first witness does not even qualify to be a witness because he was not there and did not get close to the scene of the murder, not to mention the second witness, who keeps on changing his version of the story,” he said, referring to evidence given by state witnesses Nzalama Sadam Maluleke and Oral Ndlovu respectively.
Magistrate Gordon Hlungwani said he could not pass judgement since the first accused had died and the state witnesses were not convincing. “I will rather leave this case to the DPP to handle it,” he said, telling residents in the courtroom to go home and wait for the ruling from the DPP.
Meanwhile outside court, residents were fuming at this turn of events, and accused the suspect of buying the justice system.
“This means we’re still going to die because some people have money to buy their way out of jail,” Thapelo Shitlhangu, one of the residents said. She added that they would hold a meeting to decide on the way forward.
“We wanted to deal with this case ourselves, but they said we must wait for justice to be served, and now the justice system has failed us. The matter has been returned back to us to handle,” she said.
Ngoveni said should his safety be threatened, he would seek refuge with the police.
“I’m happy now that I’m cleared but if the community refuses to accept it, I can’t go home – they will burn me alive. I need the protection of the police,” he said.
