SA Xenophobia Murder Case Postponed For Two Weeks

Johannesburg – The trial of three men and a minor for the alleged murder of Mozambican Emmanuel Sithole was postponed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

“The matter has been postponed to July 24 for the minor, as he cannot be detained for longer than 14 days at a time before appearing before the court,” a court official told News24.

At the quartet’s previous appearance on June 30, the court heard how Sithole had a beer poured on him prior to the attack that led to his death in April this year.

State witness Fabian Gomes, a street vendor like Sithole who sold vegetables, told the court he sold his vegetables on 2nd Avenue.

Prosecutor Jacob Tloubatla asked Gomes: “Can you tell the court what happened on the 18th of April while you were selling vegetables?”

Gomes, speaking in Mozambican Shangaan through a translator, replied: “Yes I can. These people, there were four when they arrived and they came from one direction singing, your worship.”

During his response, he pointed to the four accused – Mthinta Bhengu, Sizwe Mngomezulu, Sifundi Mzimzela and the 17-year-old minor who allegedly stabbed Sithole in the streets of Alexandra on April 18.

“When they arrived, one of the accused… as they were standing in front of Emmanuel’s table, took a packet of cigarettes.”

Asked by Magistrate Lucas van der Schyff who took the cigarettes, Gomes said it was accused number two, the 17-year-old minor, who took them without paying for them.

They then moved away from the table and Sithole, after realising that the cigarettes had been taken, followed the four and told the 17-year-old minor to return the cigarettes.

“As the deceased followed them to ask them to bring back the cigarettes, they walked and stood in front of another street vendor, and then one of the accused was holding a bottle of beer and he poured the bottle of beer onto the deceased’s [Sithole’s] head,” Gomes told the court.

The trial continues.

News24