Pretoria - The man dubbed Mamelodi’s number 1 Tsotsi by Police Minister Bheki Cele or Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela and his co-accused will have to spend yet another Christmas in jail pending the conclusion of their murder trial.
Mathibela, Matamela Robert Mutapa, Bonginkosi Khumalo and Sipho Hudla face a charge of murder following the death of billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana. The matter was yesterday postponed in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to April 11.
The defence is due to present its case to Judge Papi Mosopa, but the trial has stalled due to a number of reasons. One of the senior defence advocates, JP Marais, recently died and the team were also awaiting certain exhibits used by the State, to be handed to them.
These include cellphone records and video footage taken at Sandton Square at the time of Bozwana’s death. The prosecution used this evidence, presented by its experts, to try to place the accused at the scene of the crime.
The State also presented video footage taken on the day Bozwana was gunned down on the N1 Garsfontein off-ramp in Pretoria East in October 2015.
The CCTV footage was taken shortly before the alleged assassination, while Bozwana and his business partner Mpho Baloyi were shopping at Sandton Square. It is claimed some of the accused followed the pair that day.
The footage is not clear, but the prosecution called a facial recognition expert to try to prove the footage did depict some of the accused.
The defence will use the same footage to counter the evidence presented by the prosecution. The defence is also expected to call its cellphone experts to counter evidence that the phone records place the accused in the vicinity of the scene of the crime that day.
It is understood that the trial also had to be postponed as some role players are in Covid-19 self-isolation.
The case of the prosecution is mainly based on circumstantial evidence and confessions made by some accused. But the accused dispute these confessions, claiming they were made under duress.
It is alleged that on Mathibela’s instructions, the three men shot and killed Bozwana when he and Baloyi stopped at a traffic light at the Garsfontein off-ramp. Mathibela was not often mentioned during the prosecution’s case, apart from in the “confessions” and in relation to cellphone evidence.
He and his co-accused have denied any knowledge of the murder. This will be Mathibela’s second Christmas in jail after his bail was revoked last year for apparently breaking some conditions. His co-accused are facing their fourth Christmas behind bars.
Pretoria News