V3541 Khuselo Selby Mbambani |
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Mbambani and Mjuza were charged with the robbery and murder of Mr Abner Monakali. Mbambani’s trial was heard first, long before Mjuza had even been arrested.
The events occurred at about seven in the evening of 20 April 1985 in Langa, a sprawling, overcrowded township outside Cape Town, inhabited mostly by African people who work in the city – or those lucky enough to be employed. It is a depressing place where the levels of poverty are such that even those who manage to scrape a few possessions together immediately become the target of criminals. Mr Abner Monakali was on his way home to his house in Sigcau Lane at about seven o’clock. He was fifty-eight years old and walked with some difficulty, relying on a walking stick. He was returning from church where he was a lay preacher and was carrying his Bible. He was not in good health and every now and then he had to stop his already slow progress to use his asthma ventilator.
Mrs Vuyiswa Yoyo was at home at her house in Jungle Walk. She heard Mr Monakali’s sister Nobuhle shouting that someone was being robbed outside. She went outside and saw three men crouched over a fourth. She recognised Mbambani and Mjuza and also Mr Monakali. Mjuza had something shiny in his hand. When some other women shouted at Mjuza he swore at them. She saw Mr Monakali trying to protect his pockets as he pleaded, ‘Don’t kill me!’ The third attacker ran away. Then the police arrived and Mbambani and Mjuza also ran away. A young neighbour by the name of Tamsanqa and a policeman ran after Mbambani. Mrs Yoyo later found Mr Monakali’s torn Bible and broken walking stick at the scene.
Constable Koli and Constable van der Westhuizen were on patrol in Langa when they came across the scene in Jungle Walk while the crime was in progress. In the headlights of their van they saw two men robbing a third, who was lying on the ground. Van der Westhuizen attended to the injured Mr Monakali while Koli and Tamsanqa gave chase after Mbambani. They caught him at a house in Sandile Street. Koli pulled Mbambani from the house by his arm. As they came out of the house Mbambani threw away a seventeen-centimetre-long sharpened iron rod with a makeshift wooden handle.
The police took Mbambani to the police station and subjected him to a thorough search. Constable Koli found a number of Mr Monakali’s possessions in Mbambani’s pockets: an identity document, the cover of a United Building Society savings book containing papers belonging to Mr Monakali, his wrist-watch, ten rand and two cents in cash, and his dentures. There were no injuries on Mbambani and no signs of intoxication.
Mr Monakali died on the way to the police station.
Mr Monakali had been of slight build, about one point seven five metres tall and weighing only fifty-three kilograms. The evidence of the specialist pathologist was to the effect that the cause of death was a stab wound to the chest on the right side. The wound entered the chest between the fifth and sixth ribs and passed backwards, downwards and medially through the right lateral border of the heart, transfixing the right ventricle. From the heart the path of this wound continued through the lower back surface of the pericardium, through the diaphragm, and through the liver to end on the front of the spinal column. The length of the wound was measured at sixteen centimetres. It was of uniform width throughout.
Mbambani admitted he had inflicted this wound. Moreover, the dimensions of the wound matched the weapon recovered from him.
The pathologist found a further thirteen wounds on Mr Monakali’s body. All of them could have been caused by a weapon similar to the one recovered from Mbambani.
The Court found Mbambani guilty as charged and could not find any extenuating circumstances on the murder charge. Hence, on 3 June 1986, Mbambani was sentenced to death. He received eight years imprisonment on the robbery charge.
Mjuza was arrested a month later, in July 1986, when Mbambani was already in the death cells. Mjuza denied being present when Mr Monakali was killed and robbed. He said that he had been at work that day, that he had taken a train and a taxi home after eight o’clock in the evening and therefore could not have been at the scene of the crime. He pleaded not guilty on the basis of an alibi supported by his employer.
Three witnesses identified Mjuza as one of Mr Monakali’s killers. The first was Mr Monakali’s sister Nobuhle. She had recognised Mjuza, whom she knew well. They had attended the same school from a young age and she had often seen him in Langa. In fact she had seen him earlier in the day and had spoken to him. When she heard the man on the ground shouting, ‘Don’t kill me. Take what you want,’ she ran to her friend’s house and told her that Mjuza was robbing someone in the street outside. At the time Nobuhle had no idea that the victim was her brother.
Two further witnesses identified Mjuza as one of the attackers. They also knew him well. ‘Voetsek!’ he’d told them when they’d tried to intervene to save Mr Monakali, as if they were dogs.
Mjuza’s advocate called his client’s former employer to support Mjuza’s alibi that he had been at work at the time Mr Monakali was being robbed and killed in Langa. The employer’s evidence was rejected as a pack of lies. Mjuza’s own evidence was rejected. The version he gave in court contradicted what he had told the investigating officer. The defence version was no match for the evidence of the three eye witnesses.
Mjuza was found guilty as charged, with no extenuating circumstances. He was sentenced to death on the murder charge on 6 March 1987, and ten years imprisonment on the robbery charge.
Mbambani and Mjuza were hanged together on 10 December 1987. They were the same age: twenty-five.