Questions about blood link to 'kingpin cop' in Umlazi hit squad trial

28 August 2019 - 15:59 By LWANDILE BHENGU
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Former police constable Louis Mdweshu, who is accused of being the kingpin behind a hit squad at Umlazi's Glebelands hostel. He and seven others face a raft of murder and attempted murder charges in the Pietermaritzburg high court.
Former police constable Louis Mdweshu, who is accused of being the kingpin behind a hit squad at Umlazi's Glebelands hostel. He and seven others face a raft of murder and attempted murder charges in the Pietermaritzburg high court.
Image: LWANDILE BHENGU

A blood sample that has linked Louis Mdweshu, a former police officer fingered as the alleged kingpin behind a hit squad that operated at Glebelands hostel in Umlazi, came under scrutiny in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Wednesday.

Mdweshu and his co-accused, Khayelihle Mbuthuma, 28, Vukani Mcobothi, 30, Eugene Hlophe, 45, Ncomekile Ntshangase, 34, Mbuyiselwa Mkhize, 29, Mondli Mthethwa, 29, and Bongani Mbele, 33, are facing a raft of murder and attempted murder charges linked to the notorious Glebelands hostel.

The DNA sample was raised when Mdweshu's lawyer Martin Krog told the court it was only tested four years after an attempted murder incident in which the cop was allegedly shot and injured. 

During his cross examination of the state's first witness, Mthokozisi Sishi, from the local crime records centre, Krog questioned Sishi about why DNA analysis was only conducted on the sample four years after the incident.

Sishi couldn't provide a reason, adding that he only collected the evidence.

Sishi was called out to Glebelands to take pictures and collect DNA in August 2014 after a group of people had allegedly opened fire on four men. The men allegedly retaliated.

When Sishi got to the scene, he collected blood from a plastic oil bottle which the state will argue is Mdweshu's.

“The first time the DNA analysis was conducted was four years after it was collected,” said Krog.

Photographic evidence before the Pietermaritzburg high court of blood samples on a plastic bottle at the scene of an attempted murder in 2014.
Photographic evidence before the Pietermaritzburg high court of blood samples on a plastic bottle at the scene of an attempted murder in 2014.
Image: LWANDILE BHENGU

Krog also grilled Sishi about why he only collected and took photos of the blood on the bottle and not other blood samples from the scene.

“Why didn't you, as a bare minimum, take pictures of the other blood on scene,” asked Krog.

Sishi told the court that he was instructed by a detective at the scene to only take blood from the bottle because the other blood belonged to the victims of the attack.

Krog also questioned Sishi about when he arrived at the scene, as his evidence that he got there a day later conflicted with a statement by another policeman, Themba Mguni, who claimed he was on the scene on the day of the incident.

In an affidavit, dated 2018, lead investigator Bhekumuzi Sikhakhane said that after Mdweshu was shot, he produced a letter for his employer from a traditional healer.

The affidavit was not part of Wednesday's court proceedings, but was shared with TimesLIVE earlier this year.

“He later produced a 'medical certificate' issued by a traditional healer to his superiors at Durban Central Police Station in support of a claim for sick leave, where he was diagnosed as having 'abdominal cramps, vomiting and righten (sic) leg pains'.

“The fourth applicant was clearly misleading medical practitioners as well as his employer regarding the cause of his absence from work," read the affidavit.

The matter is continuing in the Pietermaritzburg high court.


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