MBOMBELA – A distressed Ms Gwen Mason, wife of deceased timber farmer, Mr Paul Mason, continued to testify against the men allegedly responsible for her husband’s death in the local division of the Eastern District Circuit High Court last week. The murder trial started last Tuesday and will continue this week.
Zimbabweans Mr Fortune Charumbira Mpofu, Mr Innocent Bangy Ncube and Mr Tackler Happy Ndlovu face charges of murder, robbery and assault after Mason was shot dead outside his home on the morning of October 3, 2013. A fourth suspect was not charged.
The Masons’ gardener, Mr Johannes Mathebula had allegedly been assaulted and robbed during the same farm attack.
Last week Gwen’s testimony relayed how four men had confronted her with the statement that they had shot her husband in the leg. She testified that she was led through the home with a gun to her head while the suspects stole various items estimated in value at between R150 000 and
R200 000.
“They took me to the bedroom. One of them demanded money and coins. I told them that we didn’t possess any coins. I was then told in extremely abusive language that they were going to rape me. I started to pray.” Gwen was then taken to the bathroom and tied to the toilet where the attackers left her and closed the door. After a while she managed to untie her hands by using a cross made of nails which had fallen at her feet.
After waiting another while for fear of her attackers returning, she left the bathroom and used the two-way radio to call for help. She also contacted her three brothers. It was only when she had reached the house’s back door that she discovered that her husband had been shot dead.
The police, neighbours and security arrived after she had endured this hour-and-a-half ordeal. They found Mathebula tied up in the house’s outside bathroom and freed him to speak to the police. Gwen was asked to compile an inventory of items which had been stolen from their home. This included two women’s wrist watches which were recovered within three weeks. “On October 21 I was contacted by warrant officer Motau. He presented me with two wrist watches and asked if I recognised them. I identified both as I bought one of them myself and my mother-in-law bought the other.”
On December 19 that year an identity parade was conducted and Gwen asked to see each man’s profiles from the front, left and right. “I asked whether I could hear each of them speak as well. I wanted to hear each one say: ‘Where is the money? Where is the coins?'”
This was the exact phrase she could recall the man saying.
Mason identified Ncube as one of the suspects after observing the line-up for eight minutes. Ncube said the police had taken photos of him before and claimed that his identification in the parade had been done illegally.
The accused have not yet been called to the witness stand and are expected to do so this week. Mpofu insisted that he had not been at the scene of the crime that day. When questioned Gwen admitted that she had never identified Mpofu in connection with the robbery.
When she had completed her testimony Mathebula was scheduled to testify. Although the content of his testimony was not available at the time of going to print, the state’s summary of substantial facts in terms of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Act confirmed that Mathebula had reported for work on the morning of October 3 and was left at the Masons’ home while they were gone. It was while he had been busy completing his duties around the house that two people approached Mathebula with firearms and instructed him to lie down on his stomach.
According to the state’s case, his hands were tied with a cable and his feet with shoelaces. He was taken to the outside bathroom and robbed of R40 and his cellphone.
