One of the two SAPS members from uMkhomazi police station, facing four counts of murder including that of eThekwini ANC ward 99 councillor Mnqobi Molefe, told the Durban Regional Court on Friday that drugs found in his house on the day he was arrested were seized in an operation and were yet to be taken to the police station.
When Thanduxolo Vincent Phelago, a police officer, was arrested, drugs were seized in his home. The counsel representing him, advocate GJ Leppan, said the drugs did not belong to Nhlonipho Cyril Nzimande, who was allegedly killed by Phelago and his colleague, Mayendran Colin Chetty.
Nzimande was shot and killed in his home on August 23, 2022.
The pair is alleged to have robbed Nzimande of money, watches, cell phones, and the drugs that he sold. Nzimande sold crystal meth, rocks, and whoonga. He allegedly sold rocks to Chetty. During cross-examination on Friday, Leppan put it to a State witness that his client Phelago was a cop and he was doing a crime prevention job and arresting people.
“The drugs found in his home were seized from other suspects. They were booked into the SAPS 13 and were going to be used as exhibits,” said Leppan.
The witness, who cannot be named for security reasons, replied confidently, and asked how did it happen that the people who were suspected to have been at Nzimande’s home at the time of his murder were found with the drugs that were taken when he was killed. “He is lying,” said the witness.
Moreover, the witness told the court that on the day Nzimande was killed, police from the uMkhomazi police station came to take statements but he and a family member decided to not say that Chetty was part of those who killed Nzimande for their own safety.
The witness said that in October 2022 he made a second statement where he said everything he saw and heard on the day Nzimande was killed.
He said he told the police from the national task team. The trial is set to continue in October.