VUYO MKIZE
T HE JOHANNESBURG High Court has ruled that a statement made by an accused over the murder of Bona editor Force Khashane in 2009 is admissible – but not as a confession.
But Judge Kathleen Satchwell said that while she accepted that Sikhumbuzo Mtshali – one of the accused in the case – had authored the statement, this did not make it a confession.
Sikhumbuzo, 21, told the court yesterday that he was coerced by police into making a confession that he had been involved in Khashane’s murder after his arrest on August 25 in 2009 at a Vosloorus hostel.
The statement, read before court by prosecutor Deon Barnard, stated: “On August 12, 2009 at 6pm, I was at Esuthwini hostel in Vosloorus when my elder brother Sibusiso approached me and requested me to accompany him to Soweto to shoot and kill a man. Sibusiso had a pistol. Vusi (Khumalo) was armed and Mchiliseni (Khanyile) was unarmed.
“Later that evening, we got into a silver-grey Yaris. Sibusiso told me the car belonged to his girlfriend from Soweto. On our arrival, he called his girlfriend. She appeared after 30 minutes.
“She and Sibusiso discussed something I didn’t hear and about three minutes later, he came back. He instructed me to stay in the car and gave me his cellphone to contact him when I saw a car with (the) registration number he (had given) me.
“About three hours later, Sibusiso and the other two left the car. I heard several gunshots, Sibusiso and the others came back and we went to Jeppe hostel to drink beers.”
He said Sibusiso had told him the following day “his girlfriend would pay us for the job”.
“I was unaware Sibusiso and his friends were going to kill a person.”
Yesterday, however, Sikhumbuzo denied writing or having any knowledge of the statement.
Judge Satchwell had a problem accepting that the statement was a confession.
She reminded Barnard that a confession was regarded as the “unequivocal confession of guilt” and added that there were too many possibilities she could speculate on.
She accepted, though, that Sikhumbuzo had authored the statement.