The case against a third suspect in the murder case of activist and businessman Loyiso Nkohla has been postponed until the 1st of December for bail applications. 38-year-old Mziyanda Mdlungu allegedly accepted a R20 000 in cash for Nkohla’s murder.
He faces eight charges, including conspiracy to murder, murder, and attempted murder, as well as several charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
He was arrested in Pretoria last week.
The murder of former Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement leader is allegedly linked to his role in talks to clear Metrorail’s Central line where several families have built shacks on the railway lines.
The state says that Loyiso Nkohla’s wife, Nyameka, was also supposed to be a target.
Mdlungu’s arrest follows that of Zukisa Tshabile, also 38, who was arrested in October. Another suspect who planned Nkohla’s murder, Thobani Maxingana, was arrested in East London on Thursday.
He was found dead in the police holding cells.
The state wants the suspect to be denied bail.
Senior State Advocate of the Director of Puplic Prosecutions, John Reyneveld, says, “This meeting, which was convened by Mr. Thobani Maxingana and took place before the 17th of April, when the actual shooting took place, was attended by the accused before court as well as accuse number one on the charge sheet.”
The court heard that more suspects may be arrested.
Nkohla’s wife, Nyameka Mabandla, says she is shocked to learn that she was also a target of her husband’s killers.
“I don’t know. I’m struggling to process the fact that I would’ve died that day. And if Loyiso had not said to me in the car, I must turn back. Because he said to me, ‘I know you don’t like listening to me, but just for today, listen to me as your husband and turn back.’ And I reluctantly turned back. I wouldn’t be around now.”
Family friend, Masizole Mnqasela, says the time has come for gun laws in South Africa to be reviewed.
“Part of what was revealed is that Loyiso’s wife was also planned to be killed that day. It tells me that they do not walk free on our streets. These are animals that belong in the darkest of the cells. And it also sends a strong message that South Africa needs tougher laws to deal with gun violence. Even where we are in Athlone and surroundings, Mitchellsplain, Hanover Park, and so forth and so forth, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Philiipi, where Loyiso died. It’s easy to take a life.”
The state told the court that before Nkohla’s assassination on the 17th April this year, there was a meeting that discussed his fate that day. The meeting was allegedly called by Maxingana and Mdlungu. Mdlungu was allegedly in contact with the shooters later that day, who asked him to pick them up from the murder scene.
Suspect in activist Loyiso Nkohla’s murder case abandons bail
