‘Killer cop’ trial: Brothers who lost siblings watch Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu’s judgment

Seated on opposite ends of court 13 in the high court sitting in Palm Ridge on Friday, where judgment in the murder trial of Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu is being delivered, are two brothers, both of whom lost siblings but in different ways.

On the one end was Director Ndlovu, Rosemary’s brother. The former police officer is accused of murdering a string of their relatives, including their sister, Audrey Somisa Ndlovu. Audrey was found poisoned and strangled to death in June 2013. Rosemary was the last person to have seen her alive.

On the other end of the courtroom sat Justice Mabasa, brother of Maurice Mabasa. Maurice had been involved in a relationship with Ndlovu for several years but in 2015 he was found butchered, stabbed 80 times and tossed outside a house in Olifantsfontein.

Ndlovu has also been charged with Mabasa’s death. Justice had told the court the couple had a rocky relationship.

Speaking to TimesLIVE last week, he said he never thought Ndlovu, who had a daughter with his brother, could have been behind his killing. It was only when he received calls from insurance companies seeking to verify Ndlovu was Mabasa’s spouse that he became suspicious. The child who Ndlovu and Mabasa had together died a year later. Her cause of death was not immediately clear.

Director sat in the courtroom, at first tapping his foot, his arms folded in front of him. He had initially been expected to testify in defence of his elder sister but at the 11th hour her lawyer announced they were no longer calling him to the stand. For several days prior to that, Director had been making his way to court, taking a seat outside the courtroom and waiting to testify in her defence.

In all those moments, he made no contact with Rosemary within the courtroom.

On Thursday, TimesLIVE reached out to Director. He was not keen to speak about the case.

During earlier proceedings, he had expressed his displeasure about the media’s presence, commenting that the person they were speaking recklessly about was his sister.

Justice has told TimesLIVE he hopes justice will be served for his brother, but even if a guilty plea was served, they had questions for Ndlovu. Justice said closure for them would come from knowing where Maurice drew his last breath.

Ndlovu is accused of killing Mabasa and five of her relatives between 2012 and 2018. It is the state’s case that the killings were motivated by her wanting to cash funeral and life insurance policies she had taken out on the Mabasa and her relatives. Ndlovu has not denied she cashed in more than R1.4m in policies for the deaths of the six but denied being the one behind their murders. She has pleaded not guilty.

Judge Ramarumo Monama is delivering his judgment.

He began by explaining to Ndlovu how proceedings would unfold and said: “The reason why there is such attention on the case is in the past 89 years, the country has not seen a similar matter.”

This was a reference to a case involving a nurse who poisoned her two husbands and her son. He said both cases have aspects that are “frightening”.

TimesLIVE