A rape and murder suspect who has caused considerable trouble on almost every occasion he has appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court walked back down to the holding cell on Monday shouting that the proceedings were “nonsense”.
Trust Tofa, 30, also interrupted the judge while he handed down judgment in Tofa’s application to have the charges against him dismissed.
On Monday, the legal representative for Tofa, advocate Chris Nel SC, brought an application to have the six charges, including two of rape and one of murder, withdrawn after the state had closed its case.
Nel told the court that the credibility of the state’s witness and other medical evidence was not strong enough to warrant the case continuing.
Tofa is accused of raping his former girlfriend, bludgeoning to death her boyfriend, assaulting her sister and kidnapping.
Tofa pleaded not guilty to a charge of housebreaking but refused to enter pleas on any of the other counts, prompting judge Jannie Eksteen to enter pleas of not guilty on his behalf.
Before Nel brought the application to have the charges withdrawn, state prosecutor advocate Mujaahid Sandan brought an application to have the matter postponed as he had not had enough time to prepare for the matter.
Sandan took over the matter after advocate Jason Thysse resigned from the National Prosecuting Authority in 2018.
Eksteen dismissed the application for a postponement, saying that the case was specifically put on the court roll for Monday because he would be available until June.
Sandan said he had learnt only on Friday that he would need to take over the case and had little time to prepare because he had other commitments over the weekend.
“I was forced to go to [Thysse’s] office [on Friday] and to search for documents and that is when I became aware of the case [on Monday],” Sandan said.
Moments before Eksteen dismissed the application for the postponement, Tofa – who was shackled and in defiance of court regulations sported a red beanie on his head – abruptly stood up, left the dock and made his way down the stairs to the holding cells.
“This is nonsense,” Tofa was heard saying as he descended the stairs.
After a short adjournment, Nel told the court Tofa was not happy about the court-appointed interpreter’s interpretation, but conceded that his client could understand English and Xhosa.
In dismissing Sandan’s application, Eksteen said it was unprofessional conduct on behalf of Thysse to not fully brief Sandan and that even though Sandan learnt on Friday about the case he had three days to prepare.
In his application to have the charges withdrawn, Nel questioned the credibility of state witnesses, the identity of the deceased and medical evidence, among other points.
Eksteen interjected and asked Nel what he should make of Tofa’s utterances during previous court proceedings when he, on his own volition and during witness testimony, said he should have killed his alleged rape victim “rather than my Zimbabwean brother”.
Nel said there was not credible evidence on the part of the state that Tofa was not acting in self-defence.
It is alleged that in November 2016, Tofa kicked down the door of his former girlfriend’s NU9 Motherwell house and assaulted her boyfriend, Godfrey Kumire with an iron rod. Kumire died of his injuries.
After beating Kumire, Tofa grabbed his former lover by the arm and dragged her to a house in NU1 Motherwell where he allegedly raped her twice.
He then allegedly attacked the girlfriend’s sister and stabbed her twice in the head.
She survived but did not testify in the matter as the state was unable to locate her.
The alleged victim previously testified that as Tofa was about to rape her a third time she was rescued by a man who stormed into the room and found Tofa naked on top of her.
While Eksteen delivered his judgment in the application brought by Nel, he reprimanded Tofa a number of times for interrupting him.
“You were not there, why do you accept the evidence of the state if it’s not true?” an annoyed Tofa said.
“I am now very p*ssed and angry – I want to speak in court but you are not allowing me to. I want to leave now.”
Eksteen dismissed the application to have the charges dismissed – except for the charge of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm because the complainant in that count had not testified.
The case was postponed to June 10.