They threatened to kill me, says witness

BEREAVED: Sophie Manjongo, mother of Thamsanqa, outside court yesterday. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

BEREAVED: Sophie Manjongo, mother of Thamsanqa, outside court yesterday. Picture: Motshwari Mofokeng

Published May 24, 2011

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OMPHITLHETSE MOOKI

They shot dead her friend dead. Then they threatened to rape and kill her, she said.

Lindiwe Komako took the witness stand in courtroom 2A of the Johannesburg High Court yesterday and testified against three men accused of the deaths of Maureen Mwale and Thamsanqa Patrick Manjongo on August 1 last year.

“They started shooting. Then they told me they were going to rape me and then kill me,” Komako said.

She had been running to a house nearby to ask for help after a hail of bullets was sprayed into a taxi she had been in with her friends Mwale and Manjongo.

One survivor, Thamsanqa Mosheshe, told the court last week they had been in the taxi, preparing to go home after a party in White City Jabavu, when he heard gunshots.

“Thami and the girl next to me were not moving. I realised the bullets had hit them,” Mosheshe said.

Another man who was at the party, Sifiso Livay Mhlaba, told the court yesterday he had seen Bongani Khumalo and other men with guns shortly before the shooting.

Among other charges, Khumalo, his brother Sibusiso and Tshepo Kehiloe face two counts of murder. They have pleaded not guilty.

The trial continues.

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