The day eight-month pregnant Tshegofatso Pule went to visit her lover, Ntuthuko Shoba, at his home in Florida, Johannesburg, and later went missing, he allegedly made several calls to her killer using an unregistered cellphone.
According to the state, investigating officer Bongani Gerald Mpete said in a statement that he had obtained cellphone records indicating Shoba made calls from a landline connected to a cellphone where he worked.
Shoba used the cellphone to make contact with Muzikayise Malephane, who pleaded guilty to the killing.
Shoba appeared in the Roodepoort magistrate's court on Thursday for the state’s response to his second bail application.
Pule, 28, was killed in June 2020. Her body was found hanging from a tree.
Shoba was arrested in February after the first person accused of the crime, Malephane, entered into a plea agreement with the state. Now serving a 20-year prison term, he alleged he was hired to kill Pule because Shoba feared his “wife” would find out about her pregnancy.
Mpete said he was able to establish that the cellphone connected to Shoba’s place of work was not registered in his name.
“It became apparent from the investigations that [Shoba] used the unregistered mobile phone not only to contact Mr Malephane, but, inter alia, the deceased [Pule].”
Mpete said the phone was used to contact Malephane on several occasions between May 27 and June 14 2020.
On May 29 Shoba called Malephane 11 times.
According to records, on June 4, when Pule went missing, Shoba contacted Malephane 23 times with the unregistered sim card.
“It is common cause that the deceased was at the applicant’s residence that day.
“The data indicates that before the arrival of the deceased at his residence, the applicant communicated with Mr Malephane 11 times and the last time being 14 minutes before her arrival.
“The call data also indicates that at all times in the presence of the deceased [Pule], the applicant [Shoba] communicated with Mr Malephane eight times and the last time being a minute, if not seconds, before the said Jeep took her away,” Mpete said.
At 9.54pm on June 4, when Shoba sent Malephane a message, a cellphone tower location put Malephane in Florida. He remained there until after 11pm.
Pule’s tower location showed her cellphone was still in Florida at 10.24pm.
Thereafter, it became inactive until the next day, when it showed a tower location in Robertville at 1.08am.
Mpete said investigations revealed that other than missed calls Malephane made to Pule on May 29, he never contacted her.
At his previous court appearance on April 6, Shoba said Malephane may have been the baby’s father. This information was given to him by a fellow awaiting-trial inmate at the Krugersdorp Correctional Centre. He said his cellmate, John Thweky Mohabe, told him Malephane, who was allocated a cell adjacent to Mohabe’s, confessed to being Pule’s boyfriend.
However, Mpete said claims that Malephane was dating Pule were “fictitious”.
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