A security guard who said he fired 15 shots at two gunmen was told by the defence in the trial of Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and his four co-accused on Thursday that not one of his empty bullet casings was found at the scene.
Bethuel Mzamo Cele rejected it outright.
“It’s a lie,” he told the Johannesburg High Court, repeating it several times.
Cele, the state’s first witness, survived the ambush of taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni at the Centurion Golf Estate on August 10 2022, where he was working as a guard.
Cele, during his evidence in chief, told the court the gunmen fired first, with the first bullet narrowly missing him, and that he drew his pistol and fired back.
Matlala, a 49-year-old tenderpreneur, is on trial with alleged gunmen Musa Kekana and Tiego Floyd Mabusela, his wife Tsakani Matlala and Nthabiseng Zandile Nzama.
All five pleaded not guilty on Monday to 25 charges, including conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, money laundering, fraud and the illegal possession of prohibited firearms and ammunition.
The state alleged Matlala ordered three shootings between August 2022 and January 2024, targeting Sibanyoni, his ex-girlfriend, actress Tebogo Thobejane, and music producer Seunkie “DJ Vetteys” Mokubung.
Several other people were caught in the gunfire alongside them, which is why the accused face 11 counts of attempted murder, each carrying a minimum sentence of life imprisonment upon conviction.
Matlala wore a grey checked suit and patterned tie on Thursday, with Kekana in a blue hooded top and face mask, Mabusela in a grey and yellow striped jumper, his wife Tsakani in a white skirt suit with a draped collar, and Nzama in a black high-neck top and jacket.
Cele, the sixth name on the state’s witness list, is one of those complainants, having been in the line of fire himself.
Advocate Annelene van den Heever, who represents Matlala and his wife, took Cele through the mechanics of his own 9mm pistol before making her point.
He agreed the pistol ejects its empty casings sideways as it fires, that they land close to the shooter, and that he had been lying on his stomach when he pulled the trigger.
By his own evidence, 15 of them should have been on the ground.
Van den Heever then told him none were found when the scene was examined.
She said the Ferrari was missing from the police sketch too.
Cele told the court a red Ferrari arrived at the estate that evening, followed by a white Golf 7, before a white BMW pulled up and two men climbed out with AK-47s.
“At the time that the sketch plan was drawn, there was no Ferrari on the scene,” Van den Heever said.
Cele said the Ferrari had arrived with two men, and that whoever drew the sketch may simply have drawn what he saw.
“So maybe when the sketcher was sketching the way that he saw it, the Ferrari was not there, I don’t know,” he said.
“Sir, please answer my question.
“Do you recall at the time the crime scene was investigated by the police whether the Ferrari was there, yes or no?” Van den Heever said.
“It was there,” Cele said.
Asked whether the crime scene manager would be wrong to say otherwise, he agreed that he would.
Van den Heever said the sketch was drawn on the same day as the shooting, and that she would hand it up to the court because she believed it was important.
Cele also told the court that police had shown him video footage of the shooting before his typed statement was taken.
He said an officer analysing the incident wanted to see where he had been standing, that they watched the footage together, and that the statement was typed up afterwards.
He could not name the officer, and said two policemen had been seated with him while a third came in and out.
Image: ITUMELENG ENGLISH / IOL
That matters because of what happened on Tuesday, when Judge Cassim Moosa refused to let the state play footage from the same scene until its authenticity is proven, including that it had not been doctored or subjected to artificial intelligence.
Van den Heever also took Cele through where his statements were signed, pointing out that one was commissioned in Pretoria and another carried a Lyttelton stamp, while he insisted all of them were taken where he worked.
Pressed on why he had told the court an ambulance arrived to collect someone who was supposedly dead, Cele said nobody had told him anyone had died, and that he had not taken the name of the person who got out of the ambulance.
He said Sibanyoni had fled through the boom gate and hidden where he felt safe, and that he later saw him being driven out in a vehicle because he refused to get into an ambulance.
Cele also conceded he had discussed the shooting with police and colleagues at the scene, and that he learned Sibanyoni had been shot from people who arrived afterwards.
The day began with Van den Heever objecting to the state’s approach to defence material, after Wednesday’s row over photographs Mabusela’s counsel, advocate Nardus Grove, took at the scene at 6am.
She argued the defence had no duty to disclose material it intends using in cross-examination, and that still photographs could not be treated like disputed digital recordings.
“This is not a game where the one gets a leg up this side and the other one does that way,” she said, citing a judgment.
Moosa used the exchange to lay down two rules for the rest of the trial.
He told counsel not to interject while another advocate was on their feet, saying he wanted the record compartmentalised properly.
He also warned them about the microphones.
“Please remember that these things are being recorded and Mr Joe Public is now listening into these proceedings,” he said.
Just before the lunch adjournment, Van den Heever told the court the accused had been brought in that morning in leg irons, which she said was contrary to a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling, and asked that they be removed for those in custody.
Moosa asked those responsible for bringing the accused to court to see him in chambers with counsel from both sides.
The trial continues.
