Durban — On Tuesday the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court heard that a man, 22, who alleges that he suffered severely at the hands of an eThekwini Municipality employee and his four friends who accused him of hijacking, had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Luzuko Thabiso Mbhele is charged with kidnapping and hijacking. He is alleged to have acted with others in hijacking e-hailing driver and city employee Sphamandla Dlamini at gunpoint before he was dumped unharmed on Lwandle Drive near Dumisani Makhaye Highway.
It is alleged that Dlamini received a request for a ride from Wyebank to Durban. On arrival, the two people he picked up hijacked him at gunpoint and forced him onto the floor of the car, and one of the two drove the car. It is further alleged that in KwaDabeka the vehicle stopped, and two more people jumped in.
The car was recovered that same day, and the following day a friend of Dlamini’s who is also an e-hailing driver received a ride request while with Dlamini, who recognised the person’s name.
It is alleged that Dlamini and his friends found the people they suspected of being the hijackers and assaulted them, interrogating them about the car keys. The hijacking was at first allegedly denied by the suspects.
On Monday Dlamini, Sihle Mliba, Nkosinathi Phungula, Mxolisi Shezi and Phakamani Mtolo were each granted R5 000 bail. The five are alleged to have kidnapped Aphelele Bushman, assaulted him and, when he died, dumped his body in a thick bush in Molweni last month.
On Tuesday, Mbhele was granted bail of R2 000 and during his application said that Aphelele, his friend, had given him a lift.
“There were three others in the car, then I saw that something was wrong. I got out of the car and ran away. The next day the complainant (Dlamini) and his friends found me on the road and picked me up. I was taken to Aphelele and they beat us up. Aphelele was killed by them, when they saw what they did they let us go. The police then came to me and arrested me,” he said.
Mbhele said he had been suffering from migraines ever since the alleged assault.
“I was beaten by the complainant and his friends, who killed my friend Aphelele. I did not act with anyone to commit a crime. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have suffered severely at the hands of the complainant and his friends.”
Mbhele’s Legal Aid attorney, M Ameer, asked the court to consider his client’s version against that of the State’s, that his client was picked up and given a lift.
“He has a reasonable explanation. There’s no evidence he hijacked … When he realised what happened he got out of the car.”
Daily News