Confession statement brought into dispute

A confession statement by a man who is believed to have assisted a former policewoman to kill two people, including her policeman boyfriend, was brought into dispute at the Port Elizabeth High Court.

On Wednesday, Lunga Mbondo's lawyer, advocate Robin O’Brien, confirmed to the court that although his client did not dispute the contents of the nine-page statement, he claimed he had been pressured to give it.

O’Brien told the court he was instructed by Mbondo to dispute the admissibility of the statement, claiming he was promised bail and threatened with violence if he did not implicate his co-accused former policewoman Nosicelo Kamba.

Mbondo and Kamba are charged with several offences, including two counts of murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and defeating the ends of justice.

While Mbondo pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial, Kamba did not.

The state did not accept Mbondo’s guilty plea.

It is alleged the pair planned and carried out the murder in April 2016 of Melikhaya Nqono, a witness to an alleged assault meted out by Kamba.

It is also alleged both accused plotted and executed a plan to murder Kamba’s police officer boyfriend, Vuyo Matshishi, in July 2017.

The bodies of both men were set alight and dumped in secluded areas near Peddie.

The case continues.