Court told of KZN soldier's ‘suicide mission’

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Durban - WHEN it was discovered that SANDF rifleman Thembinkosi Ngcobo had absconded with a rifle from his Upington base, his response to efforts to get hold of him was a text message (pictured) to his platoon commander, telling him to stop phoning him as he was interfering with his suicide mission. This emerged on Wednesday in the Durban High Court as Platoon Commander Lieutenant Garth Mohamed testified in the matter where Ngcobo is accused of murder, 18 counts of attempted murder, and robbery and kidnapping. Mohamed told the court he could not reach Ngcobo, who had not responded to a text message. He then went to Ngcobo’s bungalow, which he found empty, with all the soldier’s personal belongings gone. He then alerted base commander Colonel Lucky Nwatikalala Mushwana. WHEN it was discovered that SANDF rifleman Thembinkosi Ngcobo had absconded with a rifle from his Upington base, his response to efforts to get hold of him was a text message (pictured) to his platoon commander, telling him to stop phoning him as he was interfering with his suicide mission.

The commander told the court he spoke to Ngcobo on the phone, and was told he had already fired the gun. “He told me he was scared because if the police found him, they would arrest him and he did not trust them because they might kill him,” said Mushwana.

He said he stayed in touch with Ngcobo by phone until 9pm, advising him to hand himself over to the police.

The case proceeds from a January 2017 incident when Ngcobo was issued with a rifle at the base where he was to perform guard duties. Instead, he feigned illness before deserting his post and driving to Durban on a mission to murder his former girlfriend, Nontokozo Mbambo, and their son, who was 2 months old.

It is alleged he suspected she was being unfaithful and that he was not the father.

Ngcobo is alleged to have shot his girlfriend’s sisters, Nokwanda and Nonzuzo Mbambo, in Ntuzuma.

Nokwanda died at the scene, and Nonzuzo and her mother, Nomusa Mbambo, were shot and killed in their home a year later.

Ngcobo has pleaded not guilty to all charges, admitting that he went to the Mbambo home but not that he killed Nokwanda.

He said he met Nontokozo Mbambo in 2015 and they became a couple. He said he doubted her faithfulness and, when he returned home for Christmas, found messages on her phone indicating she was sleeping with another man.

However, Mbamo said they met in 2013 and dated casually. They rekindled their relationship in 2015 while she was pregnant with another man’s child.

“In 2016 I fell pregnant (with Ngcobo’s child). When I was about seven months along, he started accusing me of cheating. We used to argue on the phone and the relationship got bad,” she said.

Mbambo said after she gave birth in January 2017, Ngcobo went back to Upington and began making the accusations of infidelity.

“He said I should just admit it, but I told him I wasn’t (unfaithful). He said he was going to show me how people are. I assumed he was going to kill me because he used to say that if I cheated, he would kill me. I reported this to my family,” she said.

On her mother and sisters’ advice, Mbambo fled the family home for her aunt’s house in Ntuzuma. On arrival at her aunt’s home, her brother handed her a cellphone and she was told that Ngcobo had been at their home and shot her sisters. She fled to a nearby house with her son, from which she saw Ngcobo’s car arrive.

Mbambo said she saw him point the rifle at her brother, presumably forcing him to point out their aunt’s home.

“I saw them leaving the house. They had a conversation, then the accused got into his car. I saw my brother pick up his sandals and run towards us.”

Mbambo said her brother managed to get to her and stopped a taxi, which the three of them boarded to make their getaway.

The trial continues.

Daily News