Student’s last hours, friend’s rape recalled
[caption id="attachment_164739" align="aligncenter" width="532"] Police and emergency services staff gather at Brighton Beach in Port Elizabeth after the body of Thabang Ngwekazi, 28, was found. Picture: Eugene Coetzee[/caption]
The was described in harrowing terms as the three young men accused of the brutal murder and the gang-rape of his companion made a brief appearance in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday.
“He was forced to kneel. One of the men held his shoulders while the other shot him,” the indictment issued against the three men reads.
The body of Thabang Ngwekazi, 28, was later recovered in the sea off Brighton Beach. According to the indictment, he was shot in the head and wrist, but also drowned.
The trial of the three men, aged 18, 26 and 19 of New Brighton and Kwazakhele was postponed to April by Judge Dayalin Chetty.
They face 13 charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, kidnapping, rape, murder, assault and the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
They face a prescribed sentence of life imprisonment for the rape of Ngwekazi’s 22-year-old companion and 15 years’ imprisonment for the robbery charges.
The state alleges that on August 13 2016 the rape victim and the deceased, an Emergency Medicine student at the time and an employee of the Department of Health, were sitting in his vehicle, a Volkswagen Polo, in Prince Alfred Road waiting for some friends.
According to the indictment, a car stopped behind the Volkswagen and six armed men got out. They demanded Ngwekazi and the young woman’s cellphones. The indictment further describes how the men took the vehicle and forced Ngwekazi and the woman into the boot.
They took her takkies and Ngwekazi was forced to hand over his bank card and pin number. The assailants then withdrew R200 from Ngwekazi’s account.
The girl was gang-raped at gunpoint. At some point in the ordeal, Ngwekazi was shot at pointblank range at the New Brighton beach, according to the indictment.
Afterwards the men allegedly threatened to shoot the girl while they were raping her.
“One of the accused would point the firearm at her head and pulled the trigger a number of times, threatening to shoot her,” the indictment said.
The girl was later left in Rink Street. The men were arrested a few days afterwards.
At the time of his death Ngwekazi worked with Emergency Medical Services in Mthatha. The department had sent him to Port Elizabeth to qualify as a paramedic.
