Chilling details of two Shongweni families’ night of terror at the hands of an armed gang who killed, raped and robbed, have emerged in the Durban High Court.
On trial is Sihle Sandile Ndlovu, 25, alleged to be the sole remaining member of the gang.
He pleaded not guilty yesterday to six counts of murder, rape, attempted murder and two counts of housebreaking.
All the crimes took place on the night of October 25, 2010 and early the following morning.
Ndlovu’s alleged accomplices, brothers Philani and Bhejane Nxele, were killed when police officers tried to arrest them in November 2010.
When he appeared before the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court two years ago, Ndlovu said he wanted to plead guilty.
He later retracted this statement, saying he had been intimidated by police.
The State alleges that Ndlovu and his accomplices went on a crime spree in which they killed four members of the Zulu family, one of them a two-year-old boy.
They then allegedly moved to another property, where a|13-year-old girl was raped and her pregnant sister shot.
The pregnant woman’s boyfriend was also killed.
Yesterday, the rape survivor, who is now 15, described how an armed man raped her.
“We were sleeping in the room. My parents were on the bed and I was on the floor,” she told the court.
“The men, who had guns, broke into the house and they demanded cellphones and money.”
The girl, testifying through an intermediary, said one of the men asked her her name and how old she was.
“The men told my parents to lie under the bed and then the man standing closest to me asked me if I knew about sex and said he would teach me about it.
“He put me on the bed and he raped me. He only stopped after (my) mother rushed towards him and asked him what he was doing.”
The girl’s mother testified that she screamed at Ndlovu, telling him not to rape her daughter.
“I was prepared to fight him and even to be killed. I just wanted him to leave my child alone,” said the mother who, to protect her daughter’s identity, may not be named.
The mother told the court she was certain that Ndlovu had raped her daughter.
“It is the man in the dock. He was the only one in the room with us at that time. I remember what he looks like because when I spoke to him he was facing me.”
The woman testified that after she spoke to the man, she heard shots and heard her other daughter, who was pregnant, scream.
“I saw her come into the room,” she said.
“I could see that she had been shot because there was blood pouring down her legs. The men took her and put her in a wardrobe and locked the door.”
The trial continues today. Ndlovu is in custody.
