Durban — A suspect alleged to have been part of an armed group who had accused another man of being a police spy and killed him, appeared in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday and was remanded in custody until September.
Sbongiseni Njabulo “Nkanyamba” Khoza is alleged to have shot and killed Sfiso Petros Zungu a fellow KwaMashu Hostel resident in 2021, alleging that he was a police spy. Zungu was shot and killed despite relatives paying R10 000 for his life to be spared.
The case was on the court’s roll for Khoza to present evidence to authenticate documents he submitted in his defence in the murder trial. This is after the matter was adjourned on the previous occasion for this purpose as well as for him to be assigned a new Legal Aid attorney.
Khoza submitted medical documents claiming to have been at King Edward VIII Hospital, saying that he had fractured his hand a year before the shooting and therefore would not have been able to use a firearm.
The State did not accept the authenticity of the documents and the Magistrate refused to allow the defence to close its case without authentication of the medical documents.
On Wednesday, Khoza indicated to the court that he had challenges dealing with the issue of the medical document while he was behind bars.
Magistrate Ravi Pillay made an order for the investigating officer to book the accused out of Westville Prison and take him to the hospital to authenticate the document.
The matter was adjourned to September for the investigating officer to do this, and to allow Khoza’s legal representative time to peruse the case file.
Once the trial has moved past the issue of the documents, it is expected that the State and defence will argue the merits of the case ahead of a judgment ruling.
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Daily News