Durban — The State has slammed a written apology tendered by the defence counsel of a Pinetown nurse, convicted of her husband’s murder, which was carried out by two hitmen, describing the apology as not genuine.
On Monday sentencing proceedings began in the Durban High Court for Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves, 31, and her brother Steven Nkosinathi Zungu, 40.
In April, Goncalves and Zungu were found guilty of the murder of Nkosi Timmy Langa.
The nurse was also convicted of defeating the ends of justice for falsely reporting her husband missing, and his vehicle stolen, to the Pinetown SAPS.
During mitigation of sentence proceedings, the nurse’s defence advocate Mandla Luthuli read out an apology letter that his client had written.
“Convey my apology to the Langa family, tell them I am really sorry for them to lose their brother while it was not intended for anyone to be killed. I acknowledge my acts that they were bad and unlawful,” the letter read.
On September 29, 2020, Langa was allegedly 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 number.
Evidence in court during the trial by Mthimkhulu, who is serving 20 years behind bars, was that while in Langa’s house, they had yanked 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 to death.
In aggravation of sentence, senior State prosecutor advocate Krishen Shah said Goncalves’ apology was too little too late.
“Is it genuine? The answer is no. Shouldn’t this apology have come four years ago …The letter comes this morning, not addressed to (the) court or Langa’s family but to her counsel.
“What do you say about an acknowledgement and apology at the 11th hour, when we have sentencing? You can’t attach any weight to this apology,” he said.
Shah said the apology was hollow at most as the accused had not said what she was apologising for and it did not speak to the facts of the trial.
“She did not say sorry, for planning the murder; sorry that she delayed reporting him missing so the tracker can be removed; that she continued to lie to the police and family while they searched for him,” said Shah.
Sentencing continues on Tuesday.
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