Durban — A sister and brother convicted of kidnapping, robbing, and killing the female sibling’s husband showed no remorse, having not taken the court into their confidence to reveal the events leading to the demise of the father of one.
This was the State’s argument in the Durban High Court on Monday when sentencing proceedings got under way.
Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves, 31, and her brother Steven Nkosinathi Zungu, 40, were found guilty of murdering Nkosi Timmy Langa.
The nurse was also convicted of defeating the ends of justice for falsely reporting her husband missing, and his vehicle having been stolen, to the Pinetown SAPS.
“Only now today we hear that Zungu resides in Mtubatuba: when we look at the evidence led in court it says he lived in Inanda.
“Zungu is no stranger to crime, he has three convictions.
“He has not taken the court into his confidence. It’s laughable that the defence says he is remorseful and admitted to some parts of the crime. He did not take any responsibility.
“He continued with the charade, he had an opportunity when he testified to say he was guilty but said nothing about his part in the act … The truth and what the court found is that he actively participated in the murder of the deceased,” the State said.
Senior State prosecutor Krishen Shah was arguing in aggravation of sentence to the submissions made by Zungu’s Legal Aid attorney Jabulisa Malinga that Zungu had taken responsibility for what he had done in court by admitting that Langa was taken against his will.
“If Zungu was remorseful, he would have got on to the stand and told the court what happened and what his role was and apologised to the family, but he did not,” said Shah.
On September 29, 2020, Langa was forced into his Isuzu X-Rider at his home near Hampshire Place in Pinetown and taken to a forest in Ozwathini, over an hour away from Pinetown by Zungu and James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu, who turned State witness and is already serving time for his part in the crime.
Langa was kidnapped while he was with Goncalves in their home. The men obtained Langa’s PIN numbers for his bank cards that were in his car by threatening to kill him if he gave them the incorrect PIN numbers.
Testimony by Mthimkhulu – who is serving 20 years behind bars for his role in the crime – was that while in Langa’s house, they had taken a cable cord from an iron and used it to kill Langa. The cord was tied around Langa’s neck when they were in the dense forest, and Mthimkhulu pulled one end while Zungu pulled the other, strangling the father of one.
Responding to submissions by Goncalves’s counsel, advocate Mandla Luthuli, that she was a battered woman in an abusive relationship, Shah said this was not the picture the accused painted.
The State had asked Goncalves whether the abuse and assaults allegedly committed by the deceased were ever reported or a case opened, but she said no.
“Instead she said they were happily planning a wedding in December. We know from the evidence that this was not the first attempt at trying to murder Langa. The evidence was that Goncalves was unhappy to pay money as she had previously paid someone else and the job wasn’t done.”
Despite Goncalves apologising to the Langa family on Monday in a letter, Shah told the court the nurse was not remorseful. “Can you think of anything more un-Godly, cold, and heinous than what the two did to the deceased? Being tied up and kidnapped from your home, can you think of the terror he went through when they bundled him in the car, saying they just wanted him to withdraw money knowing they would not let him go?
“Where’s the remorse? Why should the court show mercy to cold-blooded people? Not once has she apologised to the Langa family here in court … The sentence must fit the crime.”
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