VUYO MKIZE
A DUBE father and his three-year-old son were shot dead after a longstanding feud between two families came to a tragic end.
Now Bheki Nxumalo, 25, stands accused of the murder of Thokozani Dlamini, 43, and his young son Siyanda.
Nduku Simelane, Dlamini’s half-brother, took to the witness box in the Johannesburg High Court yesterday to testify about events leading up to the murder of his relative and nephew at the Dube hostel on the evening of October 6 last year.
“There was a confrontation between my older brother Thokozani and Bheki (Nxumalo) a week before he was murdered.
“The argument was because our eldest brother’s daughters from back home (KwaZulu-Natal) were raped two or three years ago and… our father was robbed of his pension on the same day as the rapes (took place),” he said.
Simelane claimed that on another occasion, before the night of the shooting, Nxumalo and two of his brothers had come to the hostel room looking for Dlamini.
“I told them Thokozani had left for work. Then Bheki said my brother had been harassing them for a long time because he thought they had raped our older brother’s daughters. He said he also had a gun and would go fetch it… (and) left,” Simelane said.
He testified that he had arrived at his room in the hostel at around 7pm on the night of the murder, and shortly afterwards heard three shots being fired.
“I heard a child crying. I was in shock and Mfihleni Madondo came to my room to tell me my brother and his son were shot by the accused.
“I went outside and saw ‘ bhuti’ (his elder brother) lying on the ground with Siyanda.
“When I looked at Siyanda, I saw he had been shot in the stomach, because his intestines were coming out,” Simelane said in a soft, quivering voice.
According to the indictment filed by the State, Dlamini had taken his 9mm pistol before leaving for a spaza shop opposite the hostel. But after the shooting, he was no longer in possession of his gun.
As Dlamini and Siyanda were leaving the spaza shop, gunshots were fired and Siyanda was heard screaming.
The police were called after the two bodies had been discovered. Nxumalo was nowhere to be found after the shooting and was not seen in the hostel again, Simelane said.
The trial continues.