ZAMSHIYA was surprised by the conflicting statements of the accused investigator, who was investigating the case of a woman who disappeared a long time ago and was last seen having fun with her colleagues at a nightclub in Mhlanga.
This appeared at the Durban High Court, on Friday, when the investigating officer, Sergeant Nhlanhla Mhlongo from the Greenwood Park police station, presented his evidence led by the State.
In this case, it is alleged that Mr. Mfanafuthi Kunene, who was a manager of one of the call centers in Mhlanga, killed Ms. Ayabonga Mjilo (24) on December 25, 2024. The body of Ms. Mjilo, who is originally from Hlokozi, but was employed in Avoca, was found strangled in the pit toilet that was no longer working at the accused’s home in Maoti, Nanda, on January 4, 2025.
Mhlongo told the court that when he was assigned by his boss to investigate the case, the docket still belonged to a missing person. However, he said that after meeting with the deceased’s sister, Ms. Nontobeko Mjilo, who was the one who reported the deceased’s disappearance, the docket was changed to a kidnapping case.
“When I called Ms. Mjilo at the station on January 3, 2025, she told me that she was suffering from hidden numbers, when the caller said that she was living with Ayabonga, he would release her if she would pay a certain amount of money. Some of these calls came in before me, that’s when the booth was changed to a kidnapping,” said Mhlongo.
He said they left there and gave it to Cappello, where they were shown the cameras, revealing that after having fun, the deceased went out with the accused at 12.10 on Christmas Day, they got into the car together and left.
He said they left there and offered the defendant’s job when they arrived and found one of the managers, who confirmed that they were together on the day of the incident, and said that they left the deceased and the defendant together.
He said the woman then told them that the defendant contacted them after Christmas, and told them that he would not come to work because he had a problem, his mother had suffered a stroke.
He stated that before they returned to the station, he left his phone number, and asked them to forward it to the defendant to contact him, and he took his own as well as his home address.
He said that while they were on their way to the station, the defendant called him and said that he heard that he was looking for him. Mhlongo said he told her it was about a missing woman.
“He confirmed that they were together in Cappello, but he said that when they left, they got into different cars that were paid for according to the distance they had traveled. I asked him to come to the station so we could talk face to face, but he gave the excuse that he was not there, he was on vacation in Drakensburg, and he would return on Sunday,” recalled Mhlongo.
He said this surprised him because it contradicted the investigation he had already received.
“His statement that they traveled in different cars contradicted the evidence of Cappello’s cameras which showed that they traveled in one car. And the story that he cannot come to the station because he is on vacation in Drakensburg, contradicted his reporting to work, where he reported that his mother’s illness is the reason why he cannot come to work,” said Mhlongo.
He said seeing that there are many possibilities that he knows something about the missing woman, they contacted their people in Maoti, to get them information related to the accused. He said it was the morning of January 4, 2025, when they got confirmation that the accused was there and surrendered.
He stated that they arrived there, the accused’s mother and her son denied him, saying that he was not there, and when the police searched the house, they found him hiding behind a curtain.
He said that after handcuffing him, the accused started to shed tears and said that he did not mean to kill him. He then told them that he was behind the house, and showed them with his head where he had put his body.
He said the clothes the defendant was wearing in Cappello as well as his cell phone, he took them and put them in a bag. He said that after the exhumation of the deceased’s body, the defendant was charged with kidnapping and murder.
It is a country found out that the defendant is busy with legal studies inside the Westville prison. This comes after noticing that he enters the defendant’s box armed with a file with papers and a pen, and when the trial continues, he is seen to be writing something down.
At the beginning of the week, he asked for the intervention of the court to issue a decision that he be removed from the cell with other prisoners, and placed in solitary confinement. Among the reasons he gave, he said his case is considered one of the biggest crimes, and now he fears for his life as he receives death threats in a cell full of other prisoners. The court finally said that it cannot just issue a decision in favor of the defendant because it must first have discussions with the prison leadership, since no complaint has been filed in the prison legally.
The case continues today.
