INLSA
Rosselloty
A Hilton man accused of murdering his girlfriend and later setting her body alight yesterday chose to represent himself.
Gerald Rosselloty, 40, accused his attorney, Chetna Singh, of lying to him that certain witnesses would be recalled. Instead, he said, she had closed his case. He later successfully applied for the case to be reopened.
Singh said she would not respond to Rosselloty’s allegations and that she would withdraw from the matter.
Rosselloty was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Nokwazi Mkhize, on April 17, 2010.
Earlier that day he had been at a public hospital for the birth of his son by another woman. The State alleged that he returned to his home and assaulted Mkhize, leaving her unconscious.
The next morning, he allegedly drove to an isolated spot and placed Mkhize’s body on a mattress. He allegedly doused the mattress with a flammable substance and set it alight before returning to his simplex unit, which he also set on fire.
Rosselloty is also charged with the rape of a six-year-old girl in September 2007.
His defence against the murder charge was that he had not been home at the time of the murder or fire. He said that on that afternoon, he had been drinking with Mkhize and a former employee known as Lucky in his kitchen.
He left the kitchen and later heard the sound of breaking glass. He returned to find Mkhize on the floor.
Assuming that Lucky had harmed Mkhize, he had assaulted him and then helped Mkhize to his bedroom.
Rosselloty said he returned to the kitchen and continued drinking with Lucky, before going to bed. He was later woken by the sound of his ringing cellphone and found himself in his bakkie, which was parked close to a friend’s house. He was then told that his home was on fire.
Of the rape charge, he alleged that a jilted lover had had the child raped so that she could pin the blame on him after he turned down her marriage proposal.
Rosselloty told Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Rishi Seegobin yesterday that he wanted to call six witnesses, some of whom had already testified in the trial.
He said Singh had not questioned the witnesses according to his instructions and had ignored his request to call new witnesses.
State advocate Dorian Paver was opposed to the case being re-opened. He submitted that Rosselloty, who had previously fired another attorney, was using delaying tactics to prolong the finalisation of the case. Paver said Rosselloty should show the court that the witnesses he wanted to call were relevant to the case, and should explain why the evidence had not been led previously.
The judge ruled that it was in the interests of justice that Rosselloty be allowed to call the witnesses and adjourned the matter to November.
