Guesthouse guard accused tells bail hearing he never met Hillary Gardee

The guesthouse security guard arrested in connection with Hillary Gardee’s kidnapping and murder said on Tuesday he had never met her.

Testifying in his bail application at the Mbombela magistrate’s court, Albert Mduduzi Gama also said he was nowhere near the location where her abduction allegedly took place.

At the time of his arrest, Gama’s primary residence was one of the lodges owned by co-accused Philemon Lukhele, which served as accommodation for students. It was here police found bloodstains they believed came from Gardee.

Gama, who said he was illiterate, could not provide the court with his street address on Tuesday. He said he lived at one of three lodges owned by his boss Lukhele.

His sister Sibongile took to the witness box and offered her home for him to stay at if he is granted bail. In brief testimony, she confirmed her brother is a South African citizen who was born in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal.

Last month Gama's wife Thandiwe Mdluli also pleaded for his release pending trial, saying he was the family breadwinner and they were suffering in his absence. She said Gama usually visited her and the children at her home in Kanyamazane, outside Mbombela, at weekends when he was not working. If granted bail, she said, he could move in.

Lukhele is also seeking bail. 

Sipho Mkhatshwa, another accused, was denied bail earlier this month.

The trio were arrested in May shortly after Gardee’s body was found dumped at a plantation outside Mbombela. She had been kidnapped several days earlier, then shot.

Earlier on Tuesday, advocate Nqobizitha Mlilo, legal counsel for Lukhele and Gama, argued that the state’s wording in the charge sheet was unclear.

“To deal with the weakness of the state’s case, we need to know what the state is saying. The manner in which the charge sheet is framed, it is unclear what is the connection between whoever is before court or outside,” Mlilo said.

He particularly had issues with the wording on the charges of conspiracy to commit murder, the murder charge itself and the rape charge. Mlilo maintained that the charges were worded in a way that made it unclear what the state's case was against his clients.

Prosecutor Ntsika Mpolweni dismissed Mlilo’s submissions as a delaying tactic and said it sounded like the defence was not ready to proceed with the bail application.

“You cannot ask the state to show you the weakness of their case. If there are any further particulars you need, you can request them and the state will make them available. However, you can’t request them in court in this way,” Mpolweni said.

Magistrate Martin Morris ordered that the defence proceed with the bail application as he found nothing wrong with how the charge sheet was worded.

TimesLIVE