/ 29 November 1996

Love born and killed in jail

Alleged serial killer Moses Sithole’s wife this week helped end their relationship where it began, reports Joshua Amupadhi

THE love affair between alleged serial killer Moses Sithole and his wife, Martha Ndlovu, was conceived in prison, the Pretoria Supreme Court heard this week.

The 35-year-old Ndlovu’s testimony was helping the prosecution to send Sithole (32) back to jail, and effectively to end their relationship where it began.

Sithole, alleged to be the most accomplished serial killer in South Africa, is charged with murdering 37 women and a two-year-old, as well as 40 rapes and six robberies.

A tearful Ndlovu told the Mail & Guardian she did not love him any longer. They had separated two months before he was arrested. And just before she began to testify, Ndlovu rejected Sithole’s request to hold his baby as he sat in the dock.

In court she identified a watch, a necklace and rings as Sithole’s. The prosecution had earlier submitted the items as evidence, stating that they had been stolen from some of the slain women.

Sithole smiled broadly as his wife described how they began courting while he was in Pretoria Central Prison in July 1993. She did not say what he was in prison for, but a woman who testified earlier said he had been jailed for raping her.

Ndlovu, clutching their two-year-old girl in her arms on the witness stand, said she met Sithole through her nephew, who was ”doing time” with him. Sithole immediately started to make advances.

”He began to write me letters. Initially I didn’t respond, but after a while I agreed [to a relationship]. So I started to visit him regularly until he was released on parole in November [1993].”

After his release Sithole lived with Ndlovu in Soshanguve, Pretoria. They were married in March last year, three months after the birth of daughter Bridgette.

Their relationship came to an abrupt end on July 31 1995, after a heated argument over school keys. Sithole took the keys to work, but the school wanted them. He apparently held meetings at the school for his organisation which fought abuse against children and women.

Ndlovu said: ”When I asked him why he took the keys, he became very angry, saying I shouted at him.” Sithole packed his bags and left. She did not see him again until his arrest in October last year.

If the sight of his wife and baby girl made Sithole happy, less than three hours later the testimony of a police detective who had arrested him spoilt his day. Sithole, who had seemed unmoved in the trial until then, wept as Inspector Francis Mulovhedzi described how he shot him several times before arresting him.

Mulovhedzi said on October 18 police set a trap for Sithole at a factory in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, where he was to meet a brother-in-law. The police waited for three hours and when Sithole arrived, Mulovhedzi told him to enter the premises as it was raining. But he ”refused to come inside”.

Mulovhedzi went back into the building, saying he was going to call Sithole’s brother-in-law. When he returned, Sithole took ”two steps back. Suddenly he started running away. I chased him and fired two warning shots.”

He said Sithole ran into a dark alley, turned back and chopped at him with an axe. Mulovhedzi shot him in the right leg, but he fought back and bit the policeman on the right thumb. Mulovhedzi said he fired two more shots, wounding Sithole in the stomach and disabling him.

Sithole’s defence counsel, Eben Jordaan, said his client had a different version of that evening’s events. Sithole, he said, was walking in the street when he bumped into Mulovhedzi. The officer drew his pistol and, without a word, began firing.

The court also heard this week that the mysterious caller who spoke to two reporters at The Star newspaper claiming to be the serial killer was indeed Sithole.

On the tapes, the caller provided clues to three murders. Police found the women’s bodies in exactly the places and positions described by the caller.

Voice expert Dr Leendert Jansen said: ”To the best of my knowledge, there is no doubt whatsoever that the unknown voice is definitely that of Moses Sithole.”

Jordaan said he intended approaching the Legal Aid Board to obtain the services of an overseas voice expert to analyse the tapes.