Twenty years behind bars for murderer

A COEDMORE informal settlement man has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for murder.

Andrew Tom Khambule was found guilty in the murder case of Thando Dube who also resided at the informal settlement and was stabbed to death with a blunt instrument on the evening of 17 March 2013.

Initially no one in the informal settlement was willing to talk to Bellair SAPS detective constable, Freddy Zikalala who was tasked with investigating the murder case but after intensive investigation by the detective he started to uncover information that led to the arrest of Khambule.

During his investigation, with the assistance of his colleague, D/Const Mthethwa, D/Const Zikalala found that Khambule’s mother was a victim of assault at the hands of the deceased some time earlier in the year.

“After several dead ends and intense investigations, it was ascertained that the suspects mother, Florence Khambule, was a victim in a grievous bodily harm assault case, where the deceased, Thando Dube was a suspect,” said Warrant Officer Dereck Vijiam, corporate communications officer for Bellair SAPS.

Florence Khambula became state witness in the case against her son and subsequently Andrew was denied bail as he was considered a flight risk and was believed to try and evade justice.

In an interesting turn of events during the trial, Florence then changed from state witness to defence witness in an effort to help her son but it was too little too late and Andrew was sentenced on 26 June 2014.

“D/Constable Frederick Zikalala left no stone unturned in investigating this case and at the end he had a positive result. We commend his hard work and efforts,” added Vijiam.