MBOMBELA – The case against four young men accused of severely assaulting a 24-year-old man and leaving him for dead seven years ago resumed in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on June 8.
Two of the accused, Messrs Bongani Ngomane and Veli Methula, took the stand and denied knowing the victim, the now bed-ridden Mr Lucas Mohlala, who previously gave his emotional testimony on screen in court from a bed prepared for him in the intermediary room.
Mohlala narrated how on November 8, 2008, the two, together with their co-accused Messrs Sifiso Ngoma and Vusi Sambo, had assaulted him with beer bottles, bricks and kicked him after accusing him of telling a local businessman that he had witnessed them hiding stolen property.
He told the court that they refused to listen to him, even when he was pleading for mercy, and assaulted him until he lost consciousness.
In defence Ngomane and Methula, both claimed that eyewitness who implicated them in the matter was a prostitute who demanded more money from them in exchange for her silence.
When they refused to pay her she apparently spilled the beans.
The matter was postponed to June 19 and all the suspects are currently out on bail.
