A prosecutor in the Rhodes Park rape and murder trial today told one of the three accused that God punishes liars.
"Do you know that God punishes liars? Are you ready to receive such punishment?" prosecutor Mutuwa Nenghovhela asked Admore Ndlovu, 23, in the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge, during cross-examination. Ndlovu, Thabo Nkala, 25, and Mduduzi Mathibela Lawrence, 32, are on trial on charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, rape, and murder. They pleaded not guilty.
They were allegedly part of a 12-man gang that attacked two couples walking in the park in Kensington, on the evening of Saturday, October 17, 2015.They allegedly forced the women’s husbands, Zukisa Khela and Sizwe Tyeke, to strip before forcing them into the lake, where they drowned.
Nenghovhela asked Ndlovu whether he had a second name.
"Yes, they call me Jeje," he responded softly.
'I don’t remember going to a church'
Nenghovhela asked him if Jeje was the individual a police informer had identified in CCTV footage recorded from a house near the park soon after the crimes.
He said it was not him. Nenghovhela then Ndlovu if he was a religious man.
"No. I can recall praying, but I don’t remember going to a church."
"Would you then believe me when I tell you that God punishes liars and you will only escape that punishment when you make a clean break in everything in this matter?" Nenghovhela asked. Ndlovu said he had done nothing wrong.
He said the first time he heard the names Mdu and Rasta was in court. These were apparently the street names of Lawrence and Nkala.
'I’m telling the truth'
Nenghovhela asked Ndlovu who had cut the panties off the two women before they were raped. Ndlovu said he did not know because he was never there.
"Learn to tell the truth and it will set you free," Nenghovhela said.
"I’m telling the truth. I do not know anything."
Earlier, responding to questions from his lawyer Robert Xaba, he said that he did not even know where the park was. He claimed he was staying with his brother Sipho, in Alexandra, at the time the crimes were committed.
He denied being one of the men in CCTV footage police used to track them down.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/god-punishes-liars-rhodes-park-prosecutor-20161208
