Durban — The beginning of the new year will bring about an end to a chapter for some families as trials into the murders of their loved ones will see finality.
In January, the Durban High Court will hear arguments on the merits of the case before a ruling is made in two separate cases where husbands were allegedly killed by their wives.
Pinetown nurse Nomphumelelo Patricia Goncalves and her brother, Nkosinathi Steve Zungu, will know their fate next year. They are charged with the murder of Transnet engineer Nkosi Timmy Langa, Goncalves’ husband.
The nurse is alleged to have hired Zungu and James Mashudu “Ramaphosa” Mthimkhulu, who is a State witness, and already serving time for his part in the crime.
On September 29, 2020, Langa was allegedly forced into his Isuzu X-Rider at his home near Hampshire Place in Pinetown and taken to a forest in Ozwathini by Zungu and Mthimkhulu. There he was strangled with an electric cord cut from an iron in his home.
Zungu allegedly pulled one end while Mthimkhulu pulled the other. His body was left in the forest.
Also in January, the court will make a ruling in the murder case of Mark Buttle, who was allegedly killed by his wife, her lesbian lover as well as her friend.
Buttle was stabbed multiple times in the neck in 2018 while in his car in Newlands East, allegedly by his wife, Analidia Dias Bella Dosantos, her lover Teagan Allison Brown, and the two women’s friend, Charmaine Margaret Khumalo.
Dosantos and Khumalo stand trial without Brown, who died in July.
The three are alleged to have hatched and executed a plan to kill Buttle. An insurance policy is alleged to be the motive behind the murder, coupled with the fact that Dosantos, 41, was said to have been having an affair with Brown, 25.
In another case, the sentencing of three men convicted of killing a Verulam couple during a robbery at their farm will take place next year.
An outstanding pre-sentencing report for the convicted trio – who were 20, 18 and 15 at the time of the couple’s murder – has seen sentencing delayed in the matter this year.
In October, Judge Carol Sibiya convicted Thobelani Manqele, 25, Sphiwe Shezi, 23, and Ndawo Ndlovu, 21.
They broke into the Cottonlands Farm home of Dhir “Roy” Singh, 68, and Kallawathie Beekarie, 65, on September 2, 2018, and killed them.
Singh was stabbed several times with his fishing spear in the neck and chest while Beekarie was forced into the bathroom tub, her hands were tied behind her back, she was forced to kneel and then strangled with cables.
The couple’s bodies were found in the locked bathroom of their home.
Some trials are set to begin and others to resume in the new year, including the murder trial against pensioner Anthony Edward Ball accused of shooting and killing father of two Dean Charnley in a road rage incident.
Ball’s trial will resume in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court.
This, while the trial against two alleged hitmen, facing 15 murder charges, will begin next year in the Durban High Court. Sbonelo “Madanon” Wiseman Shangase, 32, and Thalente Mkhize, 36, face 28 charges, including a mass shooting when six people were slain in Inanda.
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