I was forced to confess, says Eastern Cape man accused of school killing

A man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend execution-style at an Eastern Cape school will plead not guilty to the crime.

Avumile Mbuyiseli Nodongwe​, 29, also wants the Mthatha’s magistrate's court to grant him R500 bail.

Noloyiso Gengqa, 35, was shot and killed in full view of her terrified co-workers at Mandleni Junior Secondary School in Xunu village near Mthatha  on August 24.

She was working as cleaner at the school as part of a Covid-19 support team. 

During Nodongwe’s bail application on Thursday, state prosecutor Nobuntu Mbunye told the court that  Nodongwe confessed to the crime.

But Nodongwe alleged he had been tortured by police and forced to make the confession.

Led by his Legal Aid lawyer Buhle Ndaba, Nodongwe said he would plead not guilty when the matter came to  trial.

He also claimed he and Gengqa were “madly in love and on good terms”.

Mbunye put it to Nodongwe that he was the shooter and “the person who brutally murdered Noloyiso Gengqa”.

“You borrowed a gun from your friend and proceeded to the school to kill Gengqa in the full view of her three colleagues,” Mbunye said.

“When they (colleagues) tried to confront you and pleaded with you not to kill Noloyiso, who was lying down, you shot her dead. (You) pointed the firearm at her colleagues and after that you left and hid in the forest, running away from police.”

Nodongwe denied these allegations.

Nodongwe told the court that a night before the killing, he exchanged harsh words with Gengqa and her elderly mother on the telephone.

“Her mother said I was an idiot and I have Aids. I angrily told her that I am not sleeping with her (mother) but her daughter and she must not talk to me like that, as if I am sleeping with her. Her daughter also flung insults at me. I went to bed hurt,” said Nodongwe.

Mbunye said this argument was the reason  he decided to borrow the gun and kill Gengqa.

“You were angry and wanted Noloyiso dead,” she said.

Again this was denied by Nodongwe.

The accused told the court that he was not a flight risk and that he had handed himself over to police in the company of a lawyer.

But Mbunye said he only handed himself over after  police had conducted a  “day and night search” for him in Gqogqorha forest and “police were closing in on you and you had no way to escape”.

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Nodongwe wants the court to release him on R500 bail so  he can look after his grandmother’s livestock and homestead and do odd jobs to pay for his six-year-old daughter, who lives with her mother.

A group comprising gender-based violence activists, traditional leaders, clergy, municipal councillors and others picketed in front of the court, calling for Nodongwe to be denied bail.

Magistrate Sibusiso Xolo postponed the bail application to September 14 for arguments. ​ 

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