There was a crush at the door of Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Tuesday as spectators jostled for seats in the public gallery for the second day in the trial of three men accused of feeding a former colleague to lions.
With standing room only in the court when the trial started on Monday, people queued outside from early on Tuesday morning to be assured of a place inside. At the gate, guards searched all who entered, using hand-held metal detectors.
The picketers who sporadically chanted and toyi-toyied on the pavement throughout Monday’s proceedings were back, in full voice.
The accused, Mark Scott-Crossley (37), Richard ”Doctor” Mathebula (41) and Simon Mathebula (43), not related to each other, have all pleaded not guilty to murdering Nelson Chisale (41).
In his last hours alive, Chisale was allegedly beaten with a panga, tied to a tree and then shoved to the ground, kicked in the head and threatened with a rifle before being loaded on to the back of a bakkie and thrown over a fence into an encampment of 20 lions at Mokwalo White Lion Project, near Hoedspruit.
Lawyers for the three accused are expected to continue their cross-examination of the security guard on duty at the Scott-Crossley farm the day of the killing, January 31 last year, when proceedings resume.
Prosecutor Ivy Tsenga also intends calling as witnesses women able to describe what Chisale was wearing when he left home for the farm to collect pots he had left there after his dismissal in November 2003.
Further evidence is also expected from police officers investigating the case, Tsenga said at the close of proceedings on Monday.
So far, the court has heard the testimony of biological crime-scene investigator Superintendent Ian van der Nest, and the Maake serious and violent crime unit’s Inspector Willem Knox.
A fourth man arrested with the others, Robert Mnisi, has turned state witness. He is expected to give evidence on Wednesday, once the state has laid the basis for his testimony, Tsenga said.
The three men are appearing before Judge George Maluleke and assessors Kate Choshi and Elphus Seemela. Scott-Crossley is represented by advocate Johann Engelbrecht SC, Richard Mathebula by advocate Mathews Kekana and Simon Mathebula by advocate Mduduzi Thabede. — Sapa