A 24-year-old man pleaded guilty in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday to the murder of Anglo-Zulu war historian David Rattray.
South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported that Thembinkosi Ndlovu told Judge President Vuka Shabalala he and five others had gone to Rattray’s Rorke’s Drift home last month to rob him, and that he was unintentionally killed.
Ndlovu’s statement said he shot Rattray twice because the historian was moving towards him after he entered his bedroom.
He said he was acting on orders of an accomplice who was with him at the time.
The case adjourned at about 1pm and will continue later.
Ndlovu is the second suspect to plead guilty to the murder — Fethe Nkwanyana (23) pleaded guilty a week after the crime was committed.
He told the same court that the motive for his gang’s invasion of the Rattray property was robbery.
Nkwanyana was sentenced to 25 years’ jail by Judge Jan Hugo on February 5.
Their alleged accomplice Siphiwe Ndlovu (25) denied any involvement in Rattray’s murder in the Dundee Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
He said on the day of the murder he went hunting, ”proposed love to a girl” and, at 4pm, went to get cigarettes.
Rattray was murdered on January 26. — Sapa