Durban — The trial of a Pinetown nurse who is alleged to have solicited two hitmen, including her brother, to kidnap and kill her husband was adjourned to September in the Durban High Court.
Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves is on trial with her brother Nkosinathi Steve Zungu, charged with the 2020 kidnapping and murder of Nkosi Timmy Langa.
Goncalves is alleged to have hired Zungu and James Mashudu Mthimkhulu to kill her husband.
On Thursday, Zungu’s cross-examination by Goncalves’s counsel Siphelele Zwane was concluded, but he still needs to be cross-examined by senior State prosecutor advocate Krishen Shah. The State asked that the matter be adjourned, saying that it was ideal for Goncalves’s counsel to present its case in the same session as the State’s cross-examination of Zungu.
Mthimkhulu, who is already serving a 20-year sentence for his part in the murder, is a State witness. Previously in his evidence, he said that Langa was killed with an electric cord cut from an iron in his home. It was put around his neck and Zungu pulled one end while Mthimkhulu allegedly pulled the other. Langa was left in a forest in Ozwathini.
Another State witness, Mandisa Ngidi, testified that she had been drinking with Zungu and Mthimkhulu on September 28, the day before Langa’s murder, and said that Goncalves had arrived in her car in Kenville, and while in the car, she had heard how the nurse wanted Langa killed and offered R15 000 as payment.
In his evidence-in-chief, Zungu denied there was ever a plot discussed in Goncalves’s car, adding that Ngidi never entered his sister’s car. He also told the court how Langa’s death was a mistake and said he was not present when he died, and stressed that Goncalves had no involvement in anything.
Outside court, Langa’s sister Zodwa Langa said that the drawn-out trial was emotionally taxing on the family.
When the trial resumes on September 18, it will be two days before Langa’s birthday and it would have been three years since his murder.
“The trial proceedings just take us back to the pain, hearing how and what happened to him just brings the pain back. The month of September is an emotional time as it's Nkosi’s birth month. His birthday is the 20th and he was killed on the 29th.”
Langa, who was 33 when he was killed, and Goncalves, who was 27 at the time, have one child together – an 8-year-old girl.
Zodwa explained that the family was close to the child and that since Goncalves arrived at their family home to report that Langa was missing, they had not seen the child. She said that the family did not even know where the child was.
The trial has been set to sit from September 18-29.
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