Tshego’s murder accused to stand trial early next year

Muzikayise Malephane, the man accused of the brutal murder of Tshegofatso Pule, will be spending Christmas and New Year’s Day behind bars.

This after the 31-year-old was remanded in custody for the start of his trial next year.

Malephane, who seemed untroubled, appeared briefly in the South Gauteng High Court on Wednesday, 9 December where the readiness of all involved in his trial was determined.

With the lack of stumbling blocks this time around, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng immediately postponed the matter to 22 January 2021 for the trial.

While walking down to the holding cells, a relaxed Malephane wearing a wrist brace on his right hand, looked at the gallery and showed his ‘supporters’ to give him a call.

Following the proceedings, various anti-gender-based violence supporters chanted outside the Joburg CBD-based court demanding justice to be served for Tshego whose body, with stab wounds, was found hanging from a tree in Durban Deep in Roodepoort after she had been reported missing a few days earlier. She was eight months pregnant at the time of her death.
For the first time community activist and a firm supporter of this case, Lerato Mkubukeli, expressed her partial satisfaction with the justice system.
“I’m not as angry as I thought I would be, because I thought it would be just a simple postponement; however, we are quite pleased to hear that early next year the trial will start,” she reflected as she chanted with the crowd outside the court.

However, she was not impressed because the proceedings started an hour late, saying that the justice system depicts a lack of urgency. “The proceedings were supposed to start at 9am but they started at 10am – and this just shows the justice system moves without any sense of urgency. The longer this matter takes to conclude, the longer it will take the affected family to get any sort of closure,” she criticised.