More evidence surfaces in Sebina arson case
Lebogang Mosikare | Friday April 4, 2014 14:29
Residents of Sebina and surrounding villages believe Ncube is responsible for the spate of murders, thefts and arson that hit their villages between October 2012 and April 2013.
Police, however, have said that he is innocent until proven guilty.
The third prosecution witness, Detective Constable Wazha Morobosi, said that there was a spate of arson incidents around Marobela and Sebina lands between October 2012 and April 2013. He said that their efforts to arrest the person or persons involved hit a snag.
He said the culprit(s) always left some writings on the ground after burning down the huts.
“In total nine cases of arson were reported. On August 9, 2013 at around 2am we responded to a case in which a hut was burnt to ashes at Sebina Crossing. When we got to the crime scene, we realised what looked like an arrow giving directions scribbled on the ground near the hut that was burnt,” said Morobosi.
He further testified that words “I want sex” were written on the ground.
“We tracked the shoe prints towards Mafa lands where another hut had been burnt. We inspected the scene and went towards Marobela. I was with constables Polai, Paki, Seepi and a Sebina resident Molete Magori. Magori is the one who reported the case to us,” said Morobosi.
Said Morobosi: “We found similar shoe prints on our way to Marobela and something written on the ground saying, “I am Charles Nguba and I am back, I want to kill women”.
Morobosi said they followed the shoe prints, which led them to a certain field called Nkhwinya.
Upon arrival at Nkhwinya field, Morobosi said they found two men and a woman inside the field.
The men were Mcgini Ncube and Themba Chuma and their female compatriot, Nanelihle Moyo.
“We inquired about the shoe prints and Ncube said the shoe prints were his,” he said.
“A pair of shoes was hidden under some branches. We handcuffed Ncube and Chuma while Moyo went to retrieve the shoes from under the branches,” Morobosi said under cross-examination from Directorate of Public Prosecutions’ Thapelo Mafishane.
He added that they retrieved a pair of Size 9 shoes, brown and light brown in colour.
Under cross-examination from Ncube, Morobosi said that upon arrival at Nkhwinya, Ncube was holding an axe.
Morobisi said Ncube then tried to escape, but stopped when they fired warning shots in the air.
Morobosi also said they ordered Ncube to lie on the ground.
He added: “The size of the boots we got at Nkhwinya exactly corresponded with the shoe size that Ncube was wearing. I stick by my statement that Ncube voluntarily told us the boots were his.”
Ncube then put it to Morobosi that the boots belonged to Themba who got them from his boss.
Morobosi answered: “The boots that were hidden under the branches were bigger than the shoe size of Chuma. It is an afterthought that he is now denying the boots are his.”
Molete Magori, the fourth prosecution witness and Sebina resident, told the court that he started knowing Ncube after he found him at Nkhwinya field.
He said it was while they were tracing some shoe prints believed to belong to a suspected arsonist.
Like Morobosi, he said the person they were tracing used the same modus operandi after burning the huts.
“I asked him if the shoe prints we were tracking were his and he answered in the affirmative,” said Magori.
Ncube said Magori was framing him because he never told him that the shoe prints were his, but Magori insisted that Ncube did.
Ncube told the court that he had nothing to ask the fifth prosecution witness, Constable Baraedi McDonald, a crime scene investigation detective.
Like other witnesses, McDonald said he found the same shoe prints at two different yards where the huts were burnt when he arrived at the scenes.
Prosecutor Mafishane told Senior Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu that the prosecution is left with cross-examining two witnesses from Zimbabwe, a investigations officer and a forensic expert who is on maternity leave.
He asked to be given three months to enable the forensic expert to return.
Mulalu set April 17 for another mention. The case will continue on May 5.