Durban — Two brothers charged with the murder of a Phoenix police sergeant will know their fate in April when the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court is due to hand down judgment in their case.
Brothers Nkosikhona and Kusakwendoda “Simplex” Luthuli shot and killed Sibongile Thelma Mbanjwa in 2021 when she was with her co-worker and lover, Sergeant W S Dlungwana, in a parked vehicle on Ndwedwe Road in Verulam.
The siblings were charged with murder, attempted murder and attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances.
It is alleged that the pair tried to rob Mbanjwa and Dlungwana who had parked their VW Polo on a side road “for some romantic alone time”.
It is said that the brothers were being driven in another vehicle on the same side road. They parked their vehicle a short distance from the couple’s car and approached the VW Polo, leaving the driver behind.
While the couple “was engaged” with each other in their car the armed assailants accosted them and made demands. At that point Dlungwana tried to drive off in a desperate attempt to escape, but the accused fired shots that killed Mbanjwa and the car crashed into a boulder.
Dlungwana exited the car and fled, hiding in a sugarcane field. The brothers tried to find him but could not.
The assailants left the scene in the car they had arrived in while Dlungwana lay in hiding and a lifeless Mbanjwa was still in the Polo. The State said a subsequent post-mortem examination of Mbanjwa’s body established the cause of death as “gunshot wounds”.
During the trial, the State maintained that the accused acted in concert in the furtherance of a common purpose to commit the offences.
The trial began in October last year with statements the brothers had made confessing to the murder, attempted murder and attempted robbery. After the siblings disputed their confession statements a trial within a trial was held to establish the validity of the statements.
However, the men’s statements were found to be admissible.
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