Defence accuses cops of excluding some aspects of investigation to nail Shoba

Nthuthuko Shoba's defence counsel has cast doubt at the evidence produced by the state as it accused investigating officers of abandoning certain aspects of the investigation in their bid to nail him.

Investigating officer Sgt Mpe Teme returned to the stand for cross-examination in the high court in Johannesburg where Shoba is on trial for murder, conspiracy to commit murder and defeating the ends of justice.

He is accused of hiring now self-confessed and convicted murderer Muzikayise Malephane to kill Tshegofatso Pule, then her pregnant girlfriend, in June 2020.

Adv Norman Makhubela criticised the police over failing to verify some of the information Malephane gave to them when he admitted that he had fabricated his first statement about the circumstances of Pule’s death before turning state witness and getting a 20-year sentence.

“You were already happy as the investigation team about the word of a self-confessed liar that gives a statement and later contradicts what they said before and not even verify it. You simply took what he said.

Makhubela also questioned why the investigators had never visited the area where Malephane admitted to have shot Pule dead in Noordgesig before taking her to Roodepoort to hang her.

“Here is an allegation that you are aware of — that the person that has given contradictory statements from the onset is now bringing a new scene. Is there any reason why the police never thought it important to take him to go verify and confirm that he was alone for instance?

“Even on his own evidence he says he was never taken and there and on the docket also there is nowhere where it indicates he was ever taken to the place where he claims to have committed the crime,” he said.

He also grilled Teme on why he and the team of investigators did not visit the dam in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, where Malephane claims to have thrown the gun he used to kill Pule.

Teme replied: “We did not take him to that scene because he was already in prison.”

Makhubela, however, stressed that the police should have applied to take him there.

Makhubela questioned Teme on why the police had not arrested Shoba after Malephane had first implicated him in his first statement which he later admitted to have falsified before making a plea bargain.

Teme said the investigators were not confident that they had enough evidence against Shoba at the time.

“Our investigations or our proof was not yet enough because at the time Malephane was arrested, he gave us the numbers belonging to Shoba. These are the numbers which were saved on his phone as “Pick'a Choose” and those numbers were different from those which were furnished by Shoba.

“At that stage we wanted to investigate that number before we could consider Malephane's utterances as true,” Teme said.

Shoba was only arrested when Malephane was sentenced to 20 years in jail for killing Pule.

Makhubela also lambasted the defense over failing to follow up on the addresses and names that came up when the number was probed.

While Shoba claimed he had only bumped and not held discussions with Malephane after the two saw each other in Meadowlands, Soweto, two days after Pule’s killing, one state witness was brought to the stand and testified that the two had held a private talk on June 6.

Veli Nkanyile said he had seen the two talking about 20 to 30 metres away from him while they were outside a hardware store.

The trial continues.