Durban — The State pinned the first man accused of killing taxi owner Dustin Pillay to the corner on Tuesday at the Durban High Court.
The accused Cebo Xulu ended up denying things that he had said during cross examination in his bail application, saying that it may have been said by co-accused Mfanufikile Dlamini, who died in custody.
Dlamini was the first accused in the matter. Xulu and Thokozani Mthethwa are facing 18 charges which include the murder of Pillay, a member of the Dolphin Coast Taxi Association, in Shakaskraal in September 2019.
When the court sitting started, the defence gave the court cell phone records of Xulu showing the towers where his cell phone which started with an 079 number was connected on September 23, 2019, the day Pillay was killed.
However, senior state prosecutor advocate Elvis Gcweka during his cross-examination referred to Xulu’s docket, and asked what number he had given to the police when he was charged in January 2020. Xulu said it was the 079 number. However, Gcweka read out a number that started with 081 which was written on the docket.
Xulu responded that this was the number of a cell phone he had in his possession at the time of his arrest. “The number is mine. I gave the police the number and I was carrying the phone that had this number 081,” said Xulu.
After a short while the accused said he had not given this number but the one that started with 079. Xulu said he did not know how the police had got the 081 number.
“Are you saying that the police who charged you went and fiddled with your phone and wrote another number, and did not write the number you told them? Is that what you are telling this court?” asked Gcweka.
Xulu responded that he did not know the 081 number by heart and that the phone with the 079 number was at his home as the cable charger had broken.
Gcweka also reminded that the trial was supposed to start in April last year, but Xulu had put in an application to bring in cell phone records. He said there was a challenge with regards to cell phone numbers and that Dlamini was alive at that time.
“We appeared before Judge Balton. She asked that the numbers are called out so that the State could record them and she would also write them down. The reason for this application was that some of the numbers were not yours, some belonged to your relatives. It was at that stage that we had to hear about the 079 number. Even in the docket, we don’t have this number,” the prosecutor said.
Gcweka noted this was the first time the State heard of that number. He put it to the accused that the cell phone records were an afterthought. He further questioned the accused about his whereabouts on the day of the incident. Xulu said he was with the mother of his child in the morning, and later went to meet up with his co-accused at Hammarsdale.
Gcweka asked him why this had never come up during the bail application. He said Xulu and Dlamini at the time were being represented by one attorney, and that Dlamini had said he was with Mthethwa on that day and they together had gone to Hammarsdale.
Moreover, Gcweka reminded Xulu that during the bail application, he had denied knowing Pillay but when he was in the dock he admitted having known him. Both accused are in custody. The matter continues on Wednesday.
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