IZHLATHI visited the ears of the former call center manager in Mhlanga, the court ruled in his favor on the request to be placed in solitary confinement in Westville prison.
Mr Mfanafuthi Kunene, who is charged with the murder and kidnapping of Ms Ayabonga Mjilo (24) made a request to be kept in solitary confinement at the Durban High Court last week.
Expressing this, his lawyer from Legal Aid, Mrs. Judy Reddy said that her client told her that she sees your life is in danger.
He went on to say that due to the case being in the news, Kunene feels unsafe to continue being housed with other prisoners.
He pointed out that because of the case he is facing, he is being threatened by other prisoners inside the prison, and he said that another threat is to find out if he is on his way from or back to the prison if he was going to hear the case. He added that even in court when he is waiting to be called to the defendant’s box, they also threaten him with other prisoners.
Judge Mrs. Jacqueline Henriques said that after communicating with the relevant agencies including the prison leadership, and the defendant brought his affidavit, the court allows him to be kept in his cell alone.
Mrs. Henriques also stated that the defendant and his family in Maoti, Nanda, were forced to leave the area, when the incident happened recently, however they returned due to the ongoing case.
Apart from that, the investigating officer Sergeant Nhlanhla Mhlongo continued to present his evidence where he was being questioned by Mrs Reddy.
It was seen that they were arguing about the kidnapping case that Mhlongo opened against the accused. Mrs. Reddy asked Mhlongo that since he opened the kidnapping case, did he investigate the hidden numbers that were allegedly calling the deceased’s sister, Mrs. Nontobeko Mjilo, saying that she would be released if a sum of money was paid.
Mhlongo replied that he was not asked who it belonged to because the numbers were hidden. Mrs Reddy accused Mhlongo of being careless in not doing a thorough investigation on those numbers, saying she could have contacted the mobile phone companies to find out more about who was calling them.
Mhlongo continued to stress that the deceased’s message to Mr. Sbahle Pienaar, saying that he was not safe, he did not know that they were going to Maoti, is also another piece of evidence that strengthens the allegations of kidnapping.
“And the fact that the defendant lied and said that they were traveling in different cars, but it turns out that they were traveling in one, and he also said that he was in the Drakensberg when he had been with them all this time. It had been nine days since the deceased disappeared, that is the reason why we decided to file a kidnapping case,” said Mhlongo.
Before that, Mrs. Reddy armed Mhlongo with questions related to genetics and autopsy. Mhlongo revealed that he was not the one who sent the genetic samples to Pretoria, but those in the morgue. He said he tried to follow up to find out what the results were, but ended up being useless. He revealed that he had been sending emails but due to the backlog of genetic samples, he never received any replies. He then mentioned that the body of the deceased was badly damaged. Also, if the body is badly damaged, it will not be easy to find out whether the deceased was killed.
The case continues today.