{"id":167889,"date":"2020-10-07T01:47:12","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T23:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/glebelands-eight-trial-resumes-pietermaritzburg-high-court\/"},"modified":"2020-10-07T01:47:12","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T23:47:12","slug":"glebelands-eight-witness-describes-murder-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/glebelands-eight-witness-describes-murder-plot\/","title":{"rendered":"Glebelands Eight: witness describes murder plot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Nompendulo%20Ngubane\/glebelands_52.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Photo of a big brick building\" class data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"2326838706\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/glebelands-eight-witness-describes-murder-plot.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">A string of murders were committed at the Glebelands hostel in Umlazi, North of Durban, between 2014 and 2016. The state witness stayed in the most infamous section, block 52, pictured above. Photo: Nompendulo Ngubane<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>After being postponed because of Covid-19 the Glebelands Eight trial has resumed.<\/li>\n<li>Eight suspects face charges related to a string of murders committed between 2014 and 2016 at the infamous hostel.<\/li>\n<li>A state witness, who claims to have been a police informer, took the stand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/glebelands-hostels-accused-plead-not-guilty\/\">\u201cGlebelands Eight\u201d trial<\/a> resumed at the Pietermaritzburg High Court this week after it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/glebelands-eight-remain-prison-another-five-months\/\">postponed due to the Covid-19<\/a> pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The accused \u2013 Bhekukwazi Mdweshu (a former detective of Durban Central police station), Khayelihle Mbuthuma, Vukani Mcobothi, Eugene Hlophe, Mbuyiselwa Mkhize, Ncomekile Ntshangase, Mondli Mthethwa and Bongani Mbhele \u2013 face 22 charges, including nine for murder and attempted murder.<\/p>\n<p>A string of murders were committed at the Glebelands hostel in Umlazi, North of Durban, between 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Under cross examination by state prosecutor Dorain Paver, a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/glebelands-eight-trial-witness-says-r160000-raised-hitman\/\"> state witness<\/a>, testifying in camera, had said that when William Mthembu and Thokozani Machi were gunned down and killed in Montclair on 12 September 2015, Mthembu was believed to be controlling the chairpeople of different blocks in Glebelands and that Machi was his hitman. A plan was therefore hatched to kill them.<\/p>\n<p>The witness previously told advocate Martin Krog, representing Mdweshu, who faces 19 charges, that he had been a police informer before the 2015 murders. But he had also previously said he only met with the police after these killings.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, under cross-examination by Krog, he said the incidents happened a long time ago, and he had muddled the sequence of events. \u201cI forgot to say I had worked with the police before and that led to the arrests of some people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow long have you been working with the police before you informed them about the killings of Mthembu and Machi?\u201d asked Krog.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t remember how long it was, but it was on many occasions that I gave them information,\u201d said the witness. \u201cThe police would call me. They told me which person to keep an eye on. The information they wanted was where the person was and what the person was wearing and those people were arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said he helped the police arrest Mahliphiza Mkhize, a suspect in a murder case in Umlazi in April 2016, and Wonder Hlophe, another suspect in the attempted murder of Cisqo Ngqatshane in December 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Krog asked if the police paid him for the information and why they had specifically chosen him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they chose me because I stayed in block 52. They did not pay me. Most of the things were happening in block 52. Police would be the ones telling me who to stay close to and I did that. I did it with the Montclair incident when Mthembu and Machi were killed in 2015. I told them all what they needed to know. They came to my work place during lunch time and I told them what happened. I told them the names of the people that were involved in those killings,\u201d said the witness.<\/p>\n<p>He said he gave further information but to different police officers a few days after the Montclair killings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey came to my work place, asked me questions and jotted whatever they wanted to write and left.<\/p>\n<p>The case continues Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2020 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/glebelands-eight-witness-describes-murder-plot.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A string of murders were committed at the Glebelands hostel in Umlazi, North of Durban, between 2014 and 2016. The state witness stayed in the most infamous section, block 52, pictured above. Photo: Nompendulo Ngubane After being postponed because of Covid-19 the Glebelands Eight trial has resumed. Eight suspects face charges related to a string [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-167889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/glebelands-eight-witness-describes-murder-plot.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}