A husband and father working as an e-hailing driver was kidnapped and locked inside his vehicle while his assailants used drugs before he was murdered in a stabbing frenzy.
Sibusiso Nogqola’s desperate attempts to escape the locked car and calls for help went unheeded, the East London regional court heard.
Lutho Nasiphi, 30, and Bahle Nqomfe, 26, have been convicted of the crime in Duncan Village on October 13 2022.
Luxolo Tyali, Eastern Cape spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, said the trial centred on the events of the morning when Nogqola left home to begin work, leaving behind his wife and their newborn baby.
“At about 11am, when she was unable to reach him after several attempts, she alerted the owner of the vehicle he was driving. The owner also failed to contact him and used the car’s tracking system to locate the vehicle. He observed it moving around East London before it stopped in Bhebhele Street, Duncan Village,” he said.
“When the vehicle owner arrived at the scene, he found the car locked, stripped of its number plates and with traces of blood inside. He contacted the police. The next day, a locksmith opened the vehicle, revealing extensive bloodstains on the back seat and in the boot. DNA analysis confirmed the blood belonged to Nogqola.”
Though no single piece of direct evidence linked the accused to the stabbing, the state presented strong circumstantial evidence and successfully argued the group acted in common purpose, a submission the court accepted
During the trial, Tyali said prosecutor Sinovuyo Sotomela led detailed evidence tracing the movements of the accused on the day of the crime. Witnesses placed Nasiphi, Nqomfe and an unidentified man in the deceased’s vehicle shortly before they drove to the home of the third accused, Xolela Mancam, where they smoked drugs.
Testimony revealed Nasiphi and the unknown man removed the number plates and Nasiphi later drove the vehicle to his home. Shortly thereafter, a witness heard a man inside the vehicle crying and pleading repeatedly, “Oh my children, oh my children”, while the car shook and its alarm sounded.
The assailants later returned to the vehicle and sped away with the victim inside and calling for help. The next day Nogqola’s body was recovered with 15 stab wounds. His family identified him at Woodbrook Mortuary.
Though no single piece of direct evidence linked the accused to the stabbing, the state presented strong circumstantial evidence and successfully argued the group acted in common purpose, a submission the court accepted.
All three accused pleaded not guilty. The state called eight witnesses, while the accused testified in their own defence and called no witnesses.
At the end of the trial the court acquitted Mancam after finding the state had not proven its case against him as an accessory after the fact. Nasiphi and Nqomfe were convicted on all three charges. The court imposed these sentences:
- robbery with aggravating circumstances: 12 years’ direct imprisonment;
- kidnapping: five years’ direct imprisonment; and
- murder: 25 years’ imprisonment.
The court ordered the sentences for robbery and kidnapping run concurrently with the murder sentence.
TimesLIVE
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