One of the five people accused of the brutal murder of two elderly residents at a Sunridge retirement village has lied to the law before and used an alias in a separate case prior to him allegedly confessing to the double murder.
Testifying in a trial-within-a-trial to determine the admissibility of an alleged confessions statement given by Akhona Mnxeba following his February 2020 arrest for the murders, Sergeant John Leppan confirmed that when Mnxeba was arrested in a separate house robbery case he gave the arresting officer a different name — Sivuyile Sondloko.
After being question in the Gqeberha high court on Monday by advocate Marius Stander if Mnxeba told him why he had used an alias, Leppan said there was no explanation given and he did not probe the issue.
The trial-within-a-trial was ordered after Mnxeba claimed he was given documents to sign without knowledge of what he was signing and investigating officer in the double murder case, constable Ridwaan Baatjies, had not explained to him what he was signing for.
Before Leppan’s testimony the court heard through Mnxeba’s lawyer, advocate Louisa Roux, that an application to obtain certain CCTV video footage from the New Law Courts building in North End would no longer proceed.
According to Roux, she had been informed by the head of security at the North End building that footage older than 30 days was longer available and that there were no backups either.
Roux had brought the application to view the interactions between her client and Baatjies on February 3 2020, when Mnxeba was arrested in connection with the Sunridge murders.
It is the second trial-within-a-trial to be held to determine the admissibility of confession statements made by the accused.
Earlier in August, the court ruled a pointing out statement given by Mnxeba’s co-accused, Mkhuseli Damaneti, was admissible with the court finding that he was not threatened or assaulted, as he had claimed, to give the statement.
In his statement, Damaneti detailed how he, Mnxeba and Luxolo Kruisjan were dropped off by Nyasha Manyange on October 21 2019, outside a nearby property which they used as a shortcut to reach St Johns retirement village.
They jumped the parameter wall and went to the door of the frail care centre, which was left unlocked, entered and then made their way to the rooms of Agnes Burns, 97, and Rosemary Langton, 87.
Damaneti claimed they were able to access the rooms with duplicate keys obtained with the help of former caregiver, Nomgebisi Slangveld.
Inside the rooms Damaneti said they found the elderly women who they tied up and gagged before ransacking their rooms and making off with various valuables.
Damaneti, 33, Slangveld, 35, Manyange, 36, Mnxeba, 31, and Kruisjan, 33, have pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery and one count of money laundering.
The case continues.
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