Durban — An investigating officer who was in Hammarsdale where the two men accused of killing taxi boss Dustin Pillay claimed they were on the day he was killed, said he never saw them.
The accused – Cebo Xulu and Thokozani Mthethwa – said they went to Hammarsdale on September 23, 2019, the day of the incident, because the brother of Mfanufikile Dlamini, a dead accused, had been shot.
Pillay, who was an executive member of the Dolphin Coast Taxi Association based in Shakaskraal, was shot and killed on that day.
On Monday, the defence called a witness, a warrant officer, who was at the crime scene in Hammarsdale. The officer, who cannot be named to protect his identity, told the Durban High Court that he never saw Xulu and Mthethwa that day.
The officer said he learnt when he got to the crime scene that one of the four men shot was a relative of Dlamini’s. The officer told senior prosecutor advocate Elvis Gcweka he did not know them and never saw them.
Gcweka asked the officer if he had been to Shakaskraal and if he could estimate how many minutes it would take to travel from there to Hammarsdale. The officer said he had never been there and could not estimate the time.
Advocate GJ Leppan said he would be calling witnesses from Isipingo pound. Last week Mthethwa had told the court that on the day of the incident, he was at the pound with Dlamini in the morning before they went to Hammarsdale. However, he could not confirm if there was a person who saw him there besides Dlamini.
Xulu and Mthethwa are facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, eight counts of attempted murder, two counts of unlawful possession of firearms (with one being of a fully automatic firearm), unlawful possession of ammunition, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property, malicious injury to property and negligent driving.
The State alleges that Pillay had made a number of reports to the police relating to murders being committed in the taxi industry. The State said he allegedly implicated some of the taxi owners and executive members of the association.
“The accused and others conspired to have Pillay and taxi owners associated with him killed to silence him or them,” said the State.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
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