Durban — Two brothers who survived an attack by a group of armed men at the KwaMashu Hostel where their younger brother was shot and killed after being accused of being a police spy still relive the trauma of that day.
Mike and Zibuse Zungu said this outside the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Their brother, Sfiso Petros Zungu, was killed even after relatives had sent R10 000 for their lives to be spared.
Sbongiseni Njabulo “Nkanyamba” Khoza, their brother’s alleged murderer, was in court on Wednesday.
Evidence in the trial is that on the day of the murder in 2021, Zungu was with his two brothers at a meeting to dispel rumours that he was a police spy. He had called this meeting after hearing someone (the accused) was looking for him regarding the matter.
Zungu and his brothers, Mike and Zibuse, arrived first at the meeting place. When Khoza arrived allegedly with a group of armed men he said they were suffering because Zungu was a police spy. The group assaulted the brothers. Mike managed to escape, but his two brothers were taken.
Pleading for their lives, the brothers offered money, and the group took them to a local loan shark who said she did not have that kind of money. Their brother back home in Maphumulo sent the money.
Zibuse’s evidence was that despite this, they were led to where they were going to be killed. He was walking behind his brother but escaped after the first gunshot went off.
Before the shooting, Zibuse had made romantic advances to a woman at the hostel and later ceased. This woman was Khoza’s girlfriend.
“There were more than 10. They all had guns … My brother denied being a police spy. I think about that day all the time, I’ve lost weight. On that day as I was running away I thought I could be hit by a bullet in the back at any moment. I knew he was dead when I heard gunshots ring out,” Mike said outside court.
Zibuse said he escaped death that day and believed they would have killed him too.
“I ran past one of them and they had a gun, struggling to get it out of his holster. I had pulled free from one of them holding me. Our mom has been sickly since our brother’s murder. We moved from the hostel and have not gone back,” said Zibuse.
Khoza pleaded not guilty.
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