A ”no-name brand” air gun was indeed the weapon pointed at her from the tree that murder victim Nelson Chisale was tied to in January this year, a domestic worker testified on Wednesday.
”This is the firearm I referred to,” Thuli Siwele told the Phalaborwa Circuit Court.
She was giving evidence in the trial of three men accused of feeding Chisale to lions after assaulting him on a Limpopo farm.
Siwele was brought in from the witness protection programme for a second time to take the stand in the trial.
The accused, Mark Scott-Crossley, Richard ”Doctor” Mathebula and Simon Mathebula (no relation), have all pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
In her evidence-in-chief on Tuesday, Siwele told the court Scott-Crossley’s son brought him the weapon, which she later saw pointed in her direction as she turned to a shout to ”look out” when she went out to hang up dishwashing cloths.
She immediately ran back inside.
When the boy returned to the house, he was laughing, Siwele, told the court on Tuesday.
He asked her: ”Thuli, what were you running away from?”
She did not answer him.
”I put it to you that this is an air gun, or commonly called a pellet gun,” Scott-Crossley’s defence counsel, Johann Engelbrecht, SC, suggested, after pointing out that the make of the weapon was not known.
”I don’t know. To me it’s just a firearm,” replied Siwele.
The air gun was handed in as an exhibit, as were the hiking boots Scott-Crossley was wearing when he allegedly kicked Chisale on the side of his face.
According to Robert Mnisi, another witness under protection, this happened as Chisale lay injured, tied to a tree.
Mnisi was originally arrested along with the other three, but later agreed to testify for the state.
People in court rose from their seats as he demonstrated the kick with the flat of his shoe against the head of a court official, while under cross-examination by Richard Mathebula’s counsel, Mathews Kekana.
Also handed in as evidence was the Leatherman super tool Mnisi alleged that Scott-Crossley used to cut the wires tying Chisale to the tree before he was loaded on to the back of a bakkie and taken to a lion enclosure in Hoedspruit. — Sapa