New police National Commissioner Bheki Cele’s intervention in a hit-and-run accident allegedly involving businessman Sifiso Zulu faded into irrelevance at the latter’s culpable homicide trial, which started at the Durban Regional Court this week.
The question of who was driving Zulu’s BMW X5 sport utility vehicle in March last year provides the key to whether the politically connected Zulu will spend time in jail or not.
The driver is alleged to have jumped a red light and smashed into another vehicle, killing students Sidumisile Mncube and Hlengiwe Dlamini.
Zulu, a close confidant of President Jacob Zuma and other ANC heavyweights, pleaded not guilty to two charges of culpable homicide, one of reckless and negligent driving, a charge of failing to perform the duties of a driver after an accident and an unrelated charge of driving over the alcohol limit in 2006.
But according to state witnesses he gave two different names regarding the identity of the alleged driver of his vehicle on the night of the accident.
Earlier in the week the police’s Inspector Suluman Pillay told the court that, at Durban Central police station, Zulu had revealed the identity of the driver as a ‘Dumisani Ngcobo from Pietermaritzburg†when reporting the accident.
The information was contradicted by Zulu’s report to his insurance company almost a year later. According to Quiton Herbst of Summit Insurance Administration Services, Zulu had been accompanied by the alleged driver of the vehicle when registering the claim: ‘Bongumusa Gumede said he was the driver on the night when Zulu’s car was involved in a hit-and-run accident,†said Herbst.
On Thursday the investigating officer, Inspector Sibusiso Ndlovu, told the court that at a meeting with Zulu, Zulu’s lawyer and ‘Gumedeâ€, Zulu had retracted his earlier statement regarding Ngcobo driving the vehicle and that ‘Gumede†had admitted to being the driver.
Ndlovu said that attempts to contact Ngcobo had been thwarted first by Zulu in Pietermaritzburg and then by Zulu’s lawyers.
Ndlovu testified that Zulu, rather than meeting the police officers to visit Ngcobo in Pietermaritzburg as agreed, had his lawyers send the police a letter stating that Zulu could not find Ngcobo and therefore would not avail himself to help locate Ngcobo.
The letter also stated that Zulu threatened to go to the media with the ID of the driver to protect his reputation.
State prosecutor Mark Dyson then asked Ndlovu if this effectively ended the investigation of Ngcobo. ‘Yes,†Ngcobo replied.
Meanwhile, speaking on radio this week, Cele, who was MEC for transport at the time and appeared on the scene soon after the accident, denied testimony by state witness Captain Shane Spilsbury that he had ‘wanted the vehicle to go directly back to the ownerâ€.
Cele is not listed as a potential witness. Spilsbury also testified that he had seen two individuals — one with dreadlocks, the other dressed in khaki — fleeing the accident scene.
He said at the police station later: ‘I noticed an African male sitting on the wall. Something made me stop and turn around. His clothing fitted the description. ‘I asked him if was the driver [of the BMW].
He initially said nothing, but then said ‘no’ and started crying.†Spilsbury identified the individual as Zulu.
Zulu’s defence team, meanwhile, contends that he had loaned his vehicle to a friend before taking a taxi home from the Musgrave Centre shopping mall where he had been drinking earlier that evening.
He further claims that he was notified of the accident only when telephoned by Cele, who was at the scene at the time. The trial continues.