“What you are telling me is not the truth. I know what the truth is. If you want me to help you going forward, it is better you tell me what happened because I know what happened.”
With these words, Capt Bongani Mpete was able to get Muzikayise Malephane to confess that Ntuthuko Shoba hired him to kill his pregnant girlfriend Tshegofatso Pule in 2020.
Speaking to Sowetan at the Gauteng police head offices in Parktown, Johannesburg this week after Shoba was sentenced to life behind bars for Pule’s murder, Mpete spoke of how Malephane’s confession helped him solve the case.
The brutality of Pule’s murder shocked the country and the court proceedings that followed gripped many people. On Monday during a press briefing, police minister Bheki Cele congratulated the police for the work that led to Shoba’s conviction.
“We also commend the Gauteng FCS [family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit] detectives whose quality work resulted in the life sentence handed down to Nthutuko Shoba in relation to the brutal murder of Tshegofatso Pule,” said the minister, adding that this type of police work needed to be employed with every case of gender-based violence and femicide.
Mpete, 49, was the investigating officer in the case and he is the head of the team that investigates murders within the Roodepoort precinct. He has been working for the SAPS for 24 years and is based at the Roodepoort police station.
Mpete said the media traction around the case prompted him to investigate it.
“I was on standby allocating new court and investigation dockets. I came across this one docket. As I read the docket, I was supposed to allocate it to one of my members. I saw that the matter was already in the media space. I discussed with my team and we agreed that since the case will involve a lot of pressure, I should take it,” said Mpete.
He said cellphone records and car-tracking systems played a huge role in nailing Shoba.
“This was a matter that did not have an eyewitness who saw a perpetrator committing the crime. We had to rely on outside material like cellphone records, the communication between them, plus his car as the tracker placed him at the house of Malephane’s girlfriend. This evidence corroborated Malephane’s statement,” he said.
Mpete said handling a case of this nature was not new territory for him.
“It was nothing difficult. I have done a lot of them. This one required experience, effort and for one to be innovative because there was no eyewitness. I would take the docket home with me and read it, and my family would tell me that they can see this is a serious case and were worried that hitmen in Soweto would kill me. I had the willpower to do this job,” said Mpete.
In March, Shoba, 33, was found guilty of orchestrating Pule’s killing in June 2020. Pule’s body was found hanging from a tree in Durban Deep, western Johannesburg. She was eight months pregnant.
Shoba was arrested in February last year, just a day before Malephane was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for his role in her murder.
During his trial, Malephane entered into a plea bargain to turn state witness against Shoba. Malephane confessed that Shoba hired him to murder Pule to hide her pregnancy from his wife. He claimed he was promised R70,000 for the killing.
Unlike Malephane, Mpete said Shoba was unco-operative with the police.
“He did not show any remorse. He is a very sly character and a person who can turn a situation to favour him. He is good at playing the victim card. I knew exactly what I wanted and I did not buy into his antics. When you catch him out on his plan, he plans another lie. He is so shameless,” said Mpete.
Mpete is currently working on a robbery case where a business owner was shot and killed in Roodepoort. The trial is scheduled to start in November.
“To crack a case, one needs passion, dedication and effort. I do not arrest to investigate, I investigate to arrest because sometimes investigating officers quickly go and make an arrest, missing a lot of things and a person gets discharged. All loopholes need to be closed before arresting a suspect.”
kokam@sowetan.co.za
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