I saw Patrick Maqubela being followed: Witness

A woman in blue pyjamas and a turban followed the late Cape Town High Court acting judge Patrick Maqubela on the morning he was last seen alive.

This emerged in court yesterday as the trial of the judge's wife, Thandi Maqubela, continued in the court in which he had presided. She is standing trial with Vela Mabena, a former pastor, for murder. They have both pleaded not guilty.

Maqubela has also been charged with forging her husband's signature on a will naming her as the main beneficiary of his estate.

The judge was allegedly suffocated in his luxury flat in Bantry Bay on June 5 2009.

Rashied Judar, a handyman at the block of flats, testified that he had worked at the complex for almost 17 years.

He said that on June 5 2009 he was working in the building's lower basement when he saw the judge emerging from the foyer and walked towards his car.

"Five minutes, later I saw a black woman in pyjamas coming out of the foyer and moving in the direction of the judge," said Judar. "At that stage, I didn't know who she was. At a later stage, I saw her on television and got to know who the woman was."

He said the woman was wearing light-blue floral cotton pyjamas, a turban and a pair of light blue slippers.

Maqubela's lawyer, Marius Broeksma, denied that his client owned such pyjamas.

He suggested that Judar had lied to the police and had repeatedly "adjusted" his story.