The testimony this week of Ntuthuko Shoba, the man accused of the murder of his heavily pregnant girlfriend Tshegofatso Pule in June 2020, left the family with the impression that Shoba did not care for her.
After listening to Shoba's testimony in the high court in Joburg this week, her uncle, Tumisang Katake, said there was also a disregard for the loss they suffered as a family.
“I honestly think he had no regard whatsoever, even for the child he claimed he was looking forward to. He had no regard for Tshegofatso.”
He referred to Shoba’s answers, during cross-examination, when he said the person who picked up Pule on June 4 was drunk.
Shoba testified he heard Pule telling that person that “he was drunk”, yet he still allowed her to get into the car.
With the defence wrapping up their case this week, the court will hear closing arguments from next week.
Apart from convicted hitman Muzikayise Malephane, the state called four witnesses — Pule’s friend Tshepiso Tsita, Malephane’s friend Muzi Khumalo and two police officers.
Tsita testified about an incident that Pule had shared with her, where she had received threats from a woman warning her to stay away from Shoba.
Khumalo testified he was not aware that Malephane was selling banned substances during lockdown, as claimed by Shoba, who said he phoned Malephane because he wanted to buy cigarettes.
Sergeant MPE Teme testified that when the investigation team confiscated the phone Shoba had been using, his communication with Pule had been deleted.
Warrant officer Andries van Tonder, who specialises in cellphone mapping, told the court that while Shoba denied knowing the unregistered number he is alleged to have used to repeatedly call Malephane hours before the killing of Pule, the number had been identified by records to be with his other registered phone on the day.
The defence advocate Norman Makhubela called three witnesses - Shoba, Khumalo and a woman the court ordered should not be identified – before closing its case.
Katake and other family members were in court the whole week as Shoba took the stand to testify in his defence on Monday. He testified after acting judge Stuart Wilson refused the application by the defence for his discharge.
Shoba, who is alleged to have hired hitman Malephane to kill Pule on June 4 2020, portrayed himself as a caring father-to-be.
Malephane, who was convicted of Pule’s murder last year and sentenced to 20 years in prison, turned state witness and testified last month that Shoba did not want his other partner, Rosetta Moatshe, to find out about Pule’s pregnancy.
While disputing Malephane’s evidence, Shoba told the court that he had indeed concealed the pregnancy from Moatshe.
Shoba said he had been “procrastinating” about telling Moatshe as he did not want to cause her stress since she had recently lost her mother to cancer.
LISTEN | Shoba wraps up his defence in Pule murder case
Shoba denied knowing the person who picked up Pule from his home on June 4.
When prosecutor Faghre Mohammed began his cross-examination on Wednesday, Shoba refused to concede that he had earlier stated in an affidavit that he had no communication with Malephane on the day of Pule’s murder.
Malephane last month testified that, on that evening, he had driven his girlfriend’s silver-grey Jeep, which was used as a decoy to make it appear as though Pule had requested an Uber.
Malephane had also testified that Shoba had repeatedly used a cellphone number to communicate with him when planning Pule’s murder.
Mohammed told Shoba that this unregistered number and Shoba’s cellphone number were located from the same base station when Shoba visited Malephane at his Durban Deep home on the afternoon of June 4.
The disputed phone was placed at the same base station when Malephane called Shoba’s phone on June 5.
When Mohammed questioned Shoba about this disputed number, he refused to comment on it.
Katake said after listening to the evidence presented, he hoped the National Prosecution Authority will secure a conviction out of this case.
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