The daughter of one of the alleged hitmen arrested for DJ Sumbody's murder has been dragged into the attempted assassination case involving businessman Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala after her account was allegedly used to move money.
Murder accused Tiego Floyd Mabusela and his daughter, Nthabiseng Nzama, 23, appeared one after the other in the same courtroom in the Alexandra magistrate's court on Tuesday.
There was heavy police presence, with some masked cops carrying assault rifles and pistols.
First, Nzama appeared briefly on charges of money laundering, but her case was postponed to August 26 with the state saying her matter would be joined with that of her father, another murder accused in the DJ Sumbody – real name Oupa Sefoka – case Musa Kekana, Matlala, and his wife Tsakani.
Mabusela, the Matlalas and Kekana have been linked to the attempted assassination of Matlala's ex-lover socialite Tebogo Thobejane in Sandton, Johannesburg, in October 2023, after her vehicle was sprayed with bullets.
The prosecution said: “A fifth accused [Nzama] is being added to the charges, but the others who appeared today [in the DJ Sumbody's case – Mabusela, Kekana, Micheal Pule Tau and Sandton businessman Katiso Molefe] are being treated as first appearances as they [cases] are connected.
“The fifth accused [Nzama] is alleged to have used her bank account for money laundering and she will be joining the others in court on August 26. The latest money laundering charges involve R120,000. This matter is a Schedule 5 offence. The state does not object to bail and a bail amount of R10,000 has been imposed. She is accused five in the Tebogo Thobejane matter."
Shortly after Nzama's appearance, her father came into the dock, together with Kekana, Pule and Molefe on three counts of the murder of DJ Sumbody and his two bodyguards – Sibusiso Mokoena and Sandile Myeza – and conspiracy to commit murder.
National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe on Tuesday confirmed that the guns used to kill DJ Sumbody and his bodyguards are the same firearms used in the attempted assassination of Thobejane.
“Today, the SAPS political killings task team brought two cases before court. One on the attempted murder of Tebogo Thobejane, and the other on the murder of DJ Sumbody, as well as his two bodyguards – Sibusiso Mokoena and Sandile Myeza,” said Mathe.
She said the same guns had been used in at least 10 high-profile cases, including DJ Sumbody and Thobejane.
“The day that [engineer] Armand Swart was killed, on April 17, 2024, within three hours, Gauteng organised crime managed to track down three suspects. During the arrest, they managed to seize one AK-47, as well as three pistols. Those firearms have been in custody since,” Mathe said.
Swart, 30, from Vereeniging, was gunned down outside his workplace in Duncanville. He was shot 23 times. Mathe said Swart had been mistaken for a colleague who had exposed corruption related to a R1.2m Transnet tender involving a fraudulent spring purchase.
“These firearms were immediately seized and taken for ballistics testing. Fast-forward to December 2024, the SAPS political killings task team is then requested to assist Gauteng organised crime detectives with the Armand Swart investigation. They take them for a second opinion for ballistics testing,” Mathe said.
She said the results were conclusive.
“Those firearms came positive on the case of Swart and the murder of DJ Sumbody and his two bodyguards. They were positively linked,” she said.
“We now know that the same firearm that killed Armand Swart is the same firearm that killed DJ Sumbody and his two bodyguards. And we now know that the same suspects who were arrested in the Armand Swart case are also the same suspects that are arrested in DJ Sumbody murder case.
“What is also interesting is that the two hitmen in this particular case [DJ Sumbody] are also linked to the Tebogo Thobejane's attempted murder. So, all these three cases are linked,” Mathe said.
The DJ Sumbody murder case is back in court on Tuesday.
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