Murderers profess innocence in court
Former cop and accomplice face life sentences
Police killers Phumzile Ngqayimbana, 45, himself a former police officer, and Siyamcela Ntshitshi, 33, yesterday were asked by a high court judge to address the community from the dock.
But the convicted murderers used the opportunity to continue to complain that they did not kill Elliotdale station commander Lieutenant-Colonel Nomalizo Dukumbana, 53.
Police officers and members of the victim’s family sat stony-faced and silent in the gallery when the killers carried on protesting their innocence.
On May 25, Judge Zamani Nhlangulela found the pair guilty of killing the commander in December 2013 at the police barracks in Elliotdale.
They were also found guilty of unlawful possession of firearms with intent to commit an offence and unlawful possession of ammunition.Sipho Makhabeni, who turned state witness, was excused from prosecution but Ngqayimbana’s girlfriend Noxolo Matya, was sentenced to life for murder and a further 18 years after she confessed to conspiracy to murder.
In his judgment, Nhlangulela said although the accused did not place their defences before the court at the outset of the trial, the evidence was that they planned to kill the commander over a labour-related dispute.
Yesterday, Nhlangulela told the murderers that the community needed to heal from what they have wreaked upon it, and asked the pair how they proposed to contribute to the healing process.
Ntshitshi continued his denials saying he was unable to help the community heal because he was not even at the scene of the crime but was at home when Dukumbana was killed.
Ngqayimbana, was no different, saying he was also unable to ask for forgiveness because: “I still maintain that I never committed this crime.”
Nhlangulela told the killers that should they opt to appeal and lose and then later apply for parole, they will be asked again for their view of the deadly act for which they were convicted. He explained that he was trying to show them the importance of saying the right thing at the right time.
“When it is time for parole saying the right thing [accepting their guilt] would make it things easier for you and should you get parole and go back to your families and communities saying the right thing will make it easy for you to be accepted and trusted again and saying the right things would also help the victim’s family heal.”
In his argument for mitigation, defence advocate Vuyisile Calaza highlighted that both men had families that depended on them financially.
Calaza said since Ntshitshi was arrested and held in custody in 2013, his two children and wife were now surviving on Ntshitshi’s mother’s pension grant, as both children were still minors and the wife was unemployed.
He said Ngqayimbana’s wife had died in 2009 and both his children were unemployed, with one still studying at a TVET college.
In his argument, state prosecutor Mduduzi Mzila called the commander Dukumbana’s son, Luyanda Dukumbana, to the stand, and he told the court that his slain mother was the entire family’s breadwinner and was responsible for the education of her grandchild and two nephews.
“She was everything to us and when she died everybody suffered, including me and my child because she did everything for us as I was, and still am, unemployed,” said Dukumbana.
Mzila also submitted documentation that stated that Ngqayimbana had three previous convictions.
l In 2002 he was convicted for assault and sentenced to a fine of R1000 or three months imprisonment, suspended for three years;
l In 2007 he was convicted for assault and paid a R500 admission of guilt fine; and
lIn 2010 he was fined R800 for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Ntsitshi had no previous convictions.
Mzila said they would ask for the life imprisonment because the crime was premeditated.
“We would only deviate for weighty reasons or compelling circumstances, in this case the victim was an police officer even though she was not on duty on the day she died and she was killed by a group of people who had conspired to do so,” said Mzila.
The matter was remanded to July 2 for sentencing. — ziphon@dispatch.co.za..
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