A man on trial in connection with the murder of a Welbedacht sangoma says he tried to stop a mob from beating her to death.
|||Durban - A man on trial in connection with the murder of a Welbedacht sangoma says he tried to stop a mob from beating her to death.
Sbusiso Mateyisa said in his evidence-in-chief in the Durban Regional Court yesterday that when he arrived at the scene he saw a man hitting Philisiwe “Makhosi” Macoba, 42, with a knobkierie.
“We struggled, but I managed to take the knobkierie away from the man and threw it to the ground. I took the knobkierie because I could see the man doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.”
Mateyisa said he had tried to stop others from beating Macoba, but some of the assailants paid him no heed.
He is on trial with two others, Lucky Howard and Khulile Feni. They are alleged to have stoned Macoba to death after she was suspected of abducting and murdering Mateyisa’s two-year-old daughter.
The child, Elethu Nziba, was found at a place of safety in Clermont on December 24, 2011.
Chatsworth police discovered that a relative had taken the child without telling her parents.
The court has heard that Macoba died after several hours of being hit with sjamboks and knobkieries and pelted with stones. She was almost necklaced.
A witness has testified that Macoba and a man called Dlamini were taken to a field where they were beaten severely. The witness said she saw Howard hitting Dlamini.
The court has heard that because Macoba did not cry when beaten, her attackers thought she was a witch.
Witnesses have testified that they saw all three accused beat Macoba.
Mateyisa said a door-to-door search was undertaken by neighbours and relatives on December 19, 2011, the evening he learnt his child was missing.
The next day, a man he had met for the first time that day and who claimed to be “gifted”, told the group that Macoba had taken the child.
The group met Macoba, who told them the last time she had seen the dreadlocked girl was when she left her on the road so that she could go home, he said.
Mateyisa said he had not been aware that Macoba, whom he referred to as “Ma”, was a sangoma.
He said Macoba directed them to a forested area, but the child was not there.
A certain Nonhlanhla then told the search party that the child was alive.
On Wednesday, asked by magistrate Umi Singh why, if the group had known that the child was alive, Macoba had been assaulted, Mateyisa said: “I cannot say why. At that stage I was no longer there.” Mateyisa said he was called to where Macoba was.
“When I got there, I found her okay and I left. She was being assaulted by women and young men. I asked them to stop, but only some listened.”
The magistrate put it to Mateyisa that there was evidence that Macoba had been taken to many places in the search for the child.
“Witnesses said she was questioned the whole night the child went missing as well as the next day, and was assaulted throughout this time, until she finally succumbed to her injuries. What is your comment to that?” Singh asked.
Mateyisa replied: “That is a lie. The deceased was never assaulted at night.” Mateyisa said he did not see the series of assaults described by witnesses. He said he had spent most of the time at the Chatsworth police station.
The magistrate put it to him that she found it “strange” that the whole community was searching for his child and he was nowhere to be seen because he was at the police station. Mateyisa said elders from his family were searching and he needed to assist the police.
The trial continues.
rizwana.umar@inl.co.za
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