A lawyer representing the alleged hitman in an insurance murder case, claims a state witness misled the court about her client's role in the crime.
Advocate Zandile Mshololo told the Pretoria high court on Tuesday her client, Hope Mahatta, will take the stand to deny the state witness’s version of events regarding the murder of Gift Mokati, who was allegedly lured from Lesotho and killed, allegedly by Mahatta.
Accused number two [Mahatta] will deny knowing accused number one [Motsieloa]. Accused two will deny he was at [traditional healer] Banda's house on the day you were shown him [by Motsieloa] and I put it to you that you were convinced that Mahatta could kill the deceased based on his structure [height and body]
— Advocate Zandile Mshololo
Allegations are that Mahatta was acting on the instructions of Mokati's cousin, Mathabo Motsieloa, who collected R1.2m in life insurance.
“Accused number two [Mahatta] will deny knowing accused number one [Motsieloa]. Accused two will deny that he was at [traditional healer] Banda's house on the day you were shown him [by Motsieloa] and I put it to you that you were convinced that Mahatta could kill the deceased based on his structure [height and body],” Mshololo said.
According to the state witness, known only as Miss Ntai, Motsieloa showed her Mahatta four times before Mokati was murdered in March 2022. Ntai is a section 204 witness. A section 204 witness is someone who was involved in a crime but makes a deal with the state to testify against their accomplices in exchange for immunity from prosecution or for a lesser sentence.
Ntai, who has pleaded guilty to her involvement in the matter and was handed a 10-year sentence in June last year, maintained she had met the alleged hitman.
The state alleges that Motsieloa, a mineworker in Brits, North West, poisoned Gift Mokati twice in March 2021, but he survived. She then hired a hitman who stabbed him to death later that month.
According to the indictment, Motsieloa then cremated Mokati's body and put bricks in his coffin on the day of his burial. However, the family discovered the plot before Mokati could be buried. It is alleged that once Old Mutual paid Motsieloa R1.2m in insurance, she gave R30,000 to Motsumi Tabane — a police officer who was investigating Mokati's murder — so he would not implicate her.
The two then allegedly conspired to kill Tabane's colleague, Lekone Mohajane, after he allegedly refused to close Mokati's murder case. Mohajane was killed in an apparent hijack in June 2023.
The trial continues.
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