Johannesburg – Ntuthuko Shoba, the alleged mastermind behind the gruesome murder of Tshegofatso Pule, told the Johannesburg High Court today that he did not know the whereabouts of his then “girlfriend” on the night she was killed.
He said his last communication with Pule was when he ordered an Uber, an e-hailing service, for the deceased, adding that he did not know Muzikayise Malephane gave Pule a ride on the fateful night.
“I requested an Uber to pick up Tshego [and drive her] to my place. I had no knowledge that it was Malephane who picked her up,” Shoba told the court.
Malephane was convicted in January last year and sentenced to 20 years in jail for Pule’s murder. He later confessed that Shoba orchestrated the murder for R70 000 and had ordered him to make the crime scene look like a suicide.
The heavily pregnant Pule was fatally shot in Noordgesig, Soweto and later found hanging from a tree in Florida Park, Rooderpoort in June 2020.
Shoba told the court that when a pick-up car arrived at his place, he walked towards the gate and saw Pule in the passenger seat of a silver-grey Jeep. He added that the driver and his then “girlfriend” seemed close, but he had assumed they knew one another.
“When I walked to the car, the window rolled down as the two were in contact, but I couldn’t see the driver of the car as he was wearing a cap and a mask. I never assumed it could be Muzi,” he told the court.
During his court appearance, Malephane had testified that he was driving his girlfriend’s silver-grey Jeep that was used as a “decoy” to pick up Pule on the day she was murdered.
The trial was adjourned to Wednesday after Shoba’s lawyer, advocate Norman Makhubela, said his client was exhausted because he had been battling to sleep.
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