“It’s all lies,” a witness told the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday, disputing Ntuthuko Shoba’s testimony that Muzikayise Malephane sold cigarettes during the hard lockdown in 2020.
Malephane was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in February 2021 for the murder of Tshegofatso Pule, who was shot and killed in Noordgesig, Soweto and later found hanging from a tree in an open veld in Durban Deep, Roodepoort in 2020.
At the time, Pule was heavily pregnant with Shoba’s child, the alleged mastermind of the gruesome murder.
Earlier this week, Shoba told the high court that he met Malephane several times in 2020 because he was his supplier for cigarettes.
Shoba’s lawyer Norman Makhubela told the court this week that Shoba and Malephane met on Main Reef Road during the hard lockdown in May 2020 to discuss how they were holding up during the pandemic.
Makhubela said on June 4, the day Pule was killed, the pair had a brief interaction because Shoba wanted to buy cigarettes in bulk from Malephane.
However, an unidentified woman disputed this, telling the court that Malephane never sold cigarettes. The woman added that the convicted killer had never went out with Shoba.
“He [Malephane] had no close relationship with Shoba, yes they met several times, but I don’t recall Shoba asking him for cigarettes. It’s all lies,” she told the court.
The witness confirmed that Malephane had borrowed her car the night Pule disappeared and later found dead. This is the same car Shoba said had picked up Pule on June 4.
However, Shoba had told the court during cross-examination this week that he could not see the face of the driver.
The witness told the court that she was with Malephane when Shoba phoned him the night Pule was killed. However, she said she does not know what they were discussing.
The case has been adjourned to Tuesday for the state and the defence to wrap up their cases.
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