The East London High Court had to abruptly adjourn for nearly 30 minutes yesterday when a state witness in the murder trial of Bulelwa Ndudula broke down sobbing.
Judge Igna Stretch called for a break after the witness indicated she needed some time to recollect herself.
Vuyiseka “VJ” Ngoqo, 43, was one of the first people at the scene on September 14 2016, just moments after former social development chief-of-staff Sakhekile Ndudula, 52, was shot eight times inside his Cambridge West home.
His widow, Bulelwa Ndudula, is accused of the slaying.
Ngoqo was the only witness on the stand yesterday.
She testified how she, her friend Noligwa Mkungeka – a tenant at the Ndudula’s household at the time – and a security guard at ADT, Vumani Majeke, carried Sakhekile’s bullet-riddled body to his Mercedes-Benz.
It was Ngoqo who drove the vehicle to St Dominic’s Hospital, while Ndudula sat, apparently without any emotion, in the passenger seat, with her dying husband in the back seat.
Ngoqo could not contain her own emotion as she related their efforts to pick up “the heavy and fat” Sakhekile from the garage floor, and put him on the back seat of his vehicle.
She told the court that after a call from Mkungeka telling her that the couple were having a fight that morning, she rushed to the scene.
She said at first it was only Mkungeka and herself who tried to lift the husband into the vehicle.
When they failed Ngoqo went to the main gate to call for help, but there was no one, until she flagged down a passing ADT vehicle.
This contradicts the widow’s version, which is both that she was the one who summoned the security guard and that she had assisted in lifting her husband into the vehicle – and this is how gunshot residue was later found on her right hand and clothing. Ngoqo said Ndudula never touched the injured man in her presence. “She was invisible at the time and kept going in and out of the house while we were struggling to carry her husband to the vehicle,” she told the court.
Ngoqo said: “When we managed to place the injured gentleman on the back seat, I noticed he was in an uncomfortable position and when I saw his wife coming with her bag and wearing her jacket, I asked her to sit with him at the back so that she could support him while I drove to hospital, but she never responded.”
Her voice struggled to come out, and she eventually broke down in tears.
The hearing was adjourned for more than 20 minutes.
When it resumed, Ngoqo told the court: “On our way we heard [Sakhekile] coughing in the back seat and I asked Bulelwa to take a look but she just glanced at him and said ‘it’s nothing, he’s fine’.”
On the way, Ngoqo said, Ndudula had told her that her husband had received death threats from some of his comrades in the ANC, claims Ngoqo said she later overheard being corroborated by some of the comrades who gathered at Ndudula’s home after hearing about the shooting.
Ngoqo said on their arrival at St Dominic’s, she had jumped from the car and rushed inside to summon help.
“Nurses came rushing and took the husband inside. I quickly followed them. But when I looked back, I could not see Bulelwa. I later saw she was just sitting in the car, with the door open.
Ngoqo said after they were informed that Sakhekile did not make it, an emotionless Ndudula was taken by nurses and placed in a bed and told she could cry as that would help her heal.
During cross-examination by defence advocate Mike Maseti, Ngoqo was taken to task for contradictory statements she had given to police, and about a WhatsApp voice note she had sent to her friends saying Ndudula was one of the people who had assisted in carrying her dying husband.
In a statement she made to police on the day of the incident, and another on September 17 2016, Ngoqo said Ndudula was one of the people who had assisted in lifting the husband to the vehicle.
Yesterday, however, she said she had not read the police statement, and it did not reflect what she knew was true. She said in the WhatsApp voice note, she meant Ndudula was around, not that she had helped carry the injured man.
Yesterday’s proceedings were cut short when state prosecuting advocate Sakhumzi Mtsila wanted to call a family friend to the stand to testify about three pages of WhatsApp messages exchanged between the friend and the accused.
Maseti told court that they had only received the document with the messages late on Wednesday and the defence team needed more time to prepare for the witness.
Stretch adjourned the hearing early in response and the trial continues today.
Court halts for anguished sobs: ‘She was invisible ... while we struggled to carry her husband’
Judge Igna Stretch called for a break after the witness indicated she needed some time to recollect herself.
Vuyiseka “VJ” Ngoqo, 43, was one of the first people at the scene on September 14 2016, just moments after former social development chief-of-staff Sakhekile Ndudula, 52, was shot eight times inside his Cambridge West home.
His widow, Bulelwa Ndudula, is accused of the slaying.
Ngoqo was the only witness on the stand yesterday.
She testified how she, her friend Noligwa Mkungeka – a tenant at the Ndudula’s household at the time – and a security guard at ADT, Vumani Majeke, carried Sakhekile’s bullet-riddled body to his Mercedes-Benz.
It was Ngoqo who drove the vehicle to St Dominic’s Hospital, while Ndudula sat, apparently without any emotion, in the passenger seat, with her dying husband in the back seat.
Ngoqo could not contain her own emotion as she related their efforts to pick up “the heavy and fat” Sakhekile from the garage floor, and put him on the back seat of his vehicle.
She told the court that after a call from Mkungeka telling her that the couple were having a fight that morning, she rushed to the scene.
She said at first it was only Mkungeka and herself who tried to lift the husband into the vehicle.
When they failed Ngoqo went to the main gate to call for help, but there was no one, until she flagged down a passing ADT vehicle.
This contradicts the widow’s version, which is both that she was the one who summoned the security guard and that she had assisted in lifting her husband into the vehicle – and this is how gunshot residue was later found on her right hand and clothing. Ngoqo said Ndudula never touched the injured man in her presence. “She was invisible at the time and kept going in and out of the house while we were struggling to carry her husband to the vehicle,” she told the court.
Ngoqo said: “When we managed to place the injured gentleman on the back seat, I noticed he was in an uncomfortable position and when I saw his wife coming with her bag and wearing her jacket, I asked her to sit with him at the back so that she could support him while I drove to hospital, but she never responded.”
Her voice struggled to come out, and she eventually broke down in tears.
The hearing was adjourned for more than 20 minutes.
When it resumed, Ngoqo told the court: “On our way we heard [Sakhekile] coughing in the back seat and I asked Bulelwa to take a look but she just glanced at him and said ‘it’s nothing, he’s fine’.”
On the way, Ngoqo said, Ndudula had told her that her husband had received death threats from some of his comrades in the ANC, claims Ngoqo said she later overheard being corroborated by some of the comrades who gathered at Ndudula’s home after hearing about the shooting.
Ngoqo said on their arrival at St Dominic’s, she had jumped from the car and rushed inside to summon help.
“Nurses came rushing and took the husband inside. I quickly followed them. But when I looked back, I could not see Bulelwa. I later saw she was just sitting in the car, with the door open.
Ngoqo said after they were informed that Sakhekile did not make it, an emotionless Ndudula was taken by nurses and placed in a bed and told she could cry as that would help her heal.
During cross-examination by defence advocate Mike Maseti, Ngoqo was taken to task for contradictory statements she had given to police, and about a WhatsApp voice note she had sent to her friends saying Ndudula was one of the people who had assisted in carrying her dying husband.
In a statement she made to police on the day of the incident, and another on September 17 2016, Ngoqo said Ndudula was one of the people who had assisted in lifting the husband to the vehicle.
Yesterday, however, she said she had not read the police statement, and it did not reflect what she knew was true. She said in the WhatsApp voice note, she meant Ndudula was around, not that she had helped carry the injured man.
Yesterday’s proceedings were cut short when state prosecuting advocate Sakhumzi Mtsila wanted to call a family friend to the stand to testify about three pages of WhatsApp messages exchanged between the friend and the accused.
Maseti told court that they had only received the document with the messages late on Wednesday and the defence team needed more time to prepare for the witness.
Stretch adjourned the hearing early in response and the trial continues today.
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