Times Of Swaziland: ADVOCATE HODES: WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY?

ADVOCATE HODES: WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY?
================================================================================
Mbongiseni Ndzimandze and Kwanele Dlamini on 17/02/2022 09:27:00


MBABANE – “If you wanted to get caught, why run away?”
This question was posed by Advocate Laurence Hodes during his cross-examination
of Mbuso ‘Ncaza’ Nkosi yesterday. Nkosi previously told the court that he
left his scent in a number of ways so that he would be caught and tell the world
what Sipho Shongwe had allegedly done to him. However, after shooting
businessman Victor Gamedze twice in the head on January 14, 2018, he ran to the
VW Polo on the side of the road next to Galp Filling Station in Ezulwini and
told Sandile ‘Dzodzo’ Zikalala/Luthango to drive off. Advocate Hodes said
onlookers saw the car taking off at high speed.
The advocate asked Nkosi why he had to run if his intention was to get caught.
He said ‘Dzodzo’ would tell Shongwe that he handed himself to the police and
he would harm his family.
“You left clues to be caught, but you wanted to escape as soon as possible?”
asked the advocate. Nkosi said: “I wanted to go and make sure that my family
was safe. I wanted to leave Swaziland because they wanted to kill us here.”
You told Charlie (‘Dzodzo’) to drive off and you left ‘Tata’ behind. He
was supposed to be your witness, insurance or security but you left him in the
bush?” asked the advocate.
Problems
Nkosi said he told ‘Dzodzo’ that there would be problems if they left
Ngubane behind. “If they killed you, ‘Tata’ would have been left
behind,” said Advocate Hodes. Nkosi said Ngubane would report to his family
that he had been killed in Eswatini. The advocate also said Nkosi and
‘Dzodzo’ left the getaway car at a college in Manzini where the latter’s
girlfriend resided, because they did not want to be found in it since members of
the public had seen the car. He said the car belonged to ‘Dzodzo’ and it was
his decision to leave it there. Having caught up with Ngubane on the way back to
the guest house in which they were booked in Mbabane and using the Yaris to
escape, Nkosi said they saw vehicles belonging to the army or the police after
abandoning the car, but still he did not turn himself in. Instead, Nkosi said
they hid and walked in the forest for about nine hours. “There came soldiers
and the police but you still did not hand yourself over?” enquired the
advocate.
Nkosi said: “Sipho said he had arranged the escape route with the police and
soldiers to help us cross into SA but I had a feeling that we would be killed.
We came into Eswatini through a different border now we were going to leave in a
different area. Charlie also agreed that sizobulawa.” He said Dzodzo revealed
to them that they were supposed to be killed. ‘Dzodzo’, according to Nkosi,
was also worried that he would be killed, since he would be the only one left
after they went to South Africa, by the powerful people who were involved in the
plot to eliminate Gamedze. He said when he was arrested in South Africa, the
police told him that he was lucky that real police officers had found him. He
said bogus police officers had previously approached him.