Glebelands witness waited three years to implicate cop in shootings

A man who was a witness to an attack at Umlazi’s Glebelands Hostel complex in 2014 waited three years before telling authorities he could place an armed policeman alleged to be among the attackers at the crime scene, because he did not trust local police.

His claim of silence, according to the defence in the case, was perjury at worst and mistaken identity at best.

But the witness’s assertion that he did not trust the Umlazi police is fertile territory, with the local station for years being accused of corruption and inefficiency, so much so that the very investigation driving this trial was removed from the station.

The witness also informed the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday that although he and his friends had come under attack, they had never spoken about the incident.

The man cannot be named as proceedings took place in camera.

His testimony formed part of the so-called Glebelands Eight trial, in which former Durban Central plainclothes’ detective Bhekukwazi Mdweshu, accused one, and seven others have been charged with crimes involving an extortion racket at the hostel that include nine counts of murder and seven of attempted murder.

All the crimes took place between 2014 and 2016, with Mdweshu allegedly the leader of the cabal.

The accused all pleaded not guilty when the trial started last week.

Acting for Mdweshu, an incredulous Advocate Martin Krog asked the witness numerous times how it could be that even though the group came under fire, they never spoke about the attack.

“So people tried to kill you but you never talked about it. Is that honestly your testimony?”

“We never discussed it,” replied the witness, who cut a vastly more confident figure than one of his peers did when testifying to the same attack on Monday.

“You saw [the friends who were attacked with you] for years afterwards and there was no discussion?”

“Nothing,” replied the man, speaking through a translator.

Although no one was killed during the attack on the night of 19 August at the notorious Block R of the complex, it led to four counts of attempted murder being levelled against Mdweshu, Khayelihle Mbuthuma, Vukani Mcobothi, Eugene Wonderboy Hlophe, Ncomekile Ntshangase and Mbuyiselwa Mkhize.

“I have two hypothesis I want to put to you,” said Krog. “The first is that you are falsely implicating accused one.”

“I am not falsely implicating him.”

Continued Krog: “The second hypothesis is that you may be mistaken.”

“I am not mistaken,” said the witness.

He had earlier in proceedings pointed to Mdweshu, seated in the dock alongside his co-accused, as being at the scene on the night in question. The witness said he saw Mdweshu limping from the scene while he was hiding near a road down an embankment.

He recognised Mdweshu because he was a policeman living at Glebelands and was well known, said the witness, although they had no interaction.

“He was wearing a Daniel Hechter hat that I have known him to have.”

(The hat led to quite a bit of back and forth throughout proceedings, with Krog eventually informing the court after consulting with his client that Mdweshu assured him he had “never” owned such an item.)

The witness said Mdweshu was running from the garages belonging to one of the victims, which were situated close to a tuck shop, in the direction of Block S.

“He was limping when running as if struck, and carrying a rifle,” he said.

There were four people involved in the attack, said the witness, but two were “standing” at the scene.

William Mthembu, one of the victims of the attack and since killed in another shooting, told police who arrived at the scene that he “suspected” he had struck one of the attackers, said the witness.

The state has claimed Mdweshu was wounded in the attack and his blood – allegedly found on a plastic Sunfoil oil bottle at the scene – was subsequently matched via DNA.

The attack resulted in the corrugated iron tuck shop being riddled with bullet holes. Vehicles and garages were also punctured with shots. Another victim, Bongani Mthembu, was shot in the leg and taken to Wentworth Hospital.

The tuck shop owner – who testified on Monday – was also taken to hospital to have pieces of the tuck shop’s door removed from his face, a result of the heavy gunfire directed at the structure, in which he was hiding.

The role – and ostensibly competence or possible complicity – of the local police again emerged via Krog’s line of questioning, as it had throughout the trial. Umlazi police station’s sergeant Cebekhulu led the team that arrived at the scene.

According to the witness, “the police walked around the area” with torches, looking for spent cartridges.

“They found many,” he said.

Krog later said although the witness – and the tuck shop owner – believed there to have been more than 50 shots fired, only nine rifle cartridges were submitted for ballistic testing, and they were all identified as coming from the same weapon.

The court also heard that the witness had not made a statement to police on the night of the attack because “no one asked me”.

Krog again asked the man why he had not taken the “golden opportunity” on the night to tell the police that he could identify one of the attackers.

“I didn’t trust the police officers who attended the scene,” replied the witness.

When sergeant Cebekhulu and his team returned the following day, they picked up the remaining spent cartridges, said the witness.

He said the local police team was also shown the “trail of blood”, presumably left by the injured Mdweshu during his getaway on foot, which started at Block R and led to Block 47.

“Police said they would collect a blood sample,” said the witness.

However, during last week’s testimony, the court heard that the only blood sample taken was from the Sunfoil bottle.

Apparently, sergeant Cebekhulu had told the forensic officer not to bother with other blood swabs as they belonged to the victims.

The first time he told police about Mdweshu being armed and at the scene was when he was questioned in 2017, said the witness.

This was after colonel Bhekumuzi Cosmos Sikhakhane and his provincial organised crime unit team took over Glebelands-related dockets from the Umlazi police and reworked the cases, which included contacting potential witnesses.

Sikhakhane has previously stated in an affidavit used during bail applications that the cases “were not being satisfactorily handled at a station level”.

A “substantial” witness is set to appear on Wednesday, state prosecutor Advocate Dorian Paver told the court. DM