VIDEO | Double murder trial for serial killer Nkuna

Convicted serial killer Hlabirwa Rassie Nkuna is facing two murder trials − in Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

Nkuna will stand trial in the Mpumalanga High Court for the murders of Hillary Gardee and Nonkululeko Nkosi, who were killed months apart.

He is also facing double murder charges for the killing of couple Lucky and Sabelisiwe Mogashoa, whom he kidnapped and shot dead in front of their minor children in March 2022. It is said that after killing the couple, he took their BMW and gave it to his girlfriend Pretty Mazibuko as a gift.

But wo months after the couple’s deaths, Nkuna killed Pretty and her police sergeant sister Marcia Mazibuko in Mpumalanga.

Hillary, daughter of EFF deputy president Godrich Gardee, and her adopted three-year-old daughter went missing on April 29 2022 at the Nelspruit Plaza.

Her daughter was later found dumped in KaMagugu, where they stayed, while Hillary’s lifeless body was found by timber plantation workers about 60km outside Mbombela on May 3 2022.

Nkuna was arrested on August 11 2022, and the state at the time said he had confessed to meeting Hillary on Facebook, leading to an arranged meeting on April 29 in Mbombela.

Nkuna also allegedly abducted Nkosi after meeting her on Facebook. The state alleges that after luring her, Nkuna used a taser to immobilise and strangle her on August 6 2022. She was found by a cattle herder, and before she died, she told police who had attacked her.

The Gardee and Nkosi murder trials were set to start in the Mpumalanga High Court on Monday, but Nkuna’s lawyer, Malesela Kekana, asked for a postponement, revealing for the first time that his client was facing 12 charges, including two counts of murder, three of abduction, two counts of possession of an unlicensed firearm and two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson in Mpumalanga, Monica Nyuswa, said the state had decided to combine the Gardee and Nkosi murder cases and have one trial.

“We have joined the cases of Hillary Gardee and that of Nonkululeko Crystal Nkosi; that is why the accused is facing a total of 12 charges, including double murder,” said Nyuswa.

Kekana said: “We won’t be able to continue with the trial today and are asking the court to give us a postponement so that we can finalise consultation with our client. We managed to consult on seven of the 12 charges the state alleges.”

The court granted the postponement and instructed that the consultation be done promptly, as the trial is set to last six weeks.

Outside court, EFF supporters sang and danced in support of the Gardee family.

In March, Sowetan reported on how Nkuna was granted parole and went on to commit a series of brutal murders while correctional services officials failed to monitor him adequately.

This lapse in the parole system is revealed in a damning report exposing negligence at multiple correctional facilities where Nkuna was incarcerated.

An investigation report stated how Nkuna was released on parole on January 17 2022 despite having been identified as an absconder from the Praktiseer Community Corrections in Limpopo in February 2018.

Nkuna was then serving a four-year sentence for possession of a firearm and ammunition at the time.

Sowetan