Husband drags wife and hitman into his rape case to have victim killed

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A High Court in Cape Town, Western Cape has handed down a life sentence to a couple, 36 years old Cebisa Chuma Bhala and 34 years old Mmeli Kheswa and third accused 42 years old Mlungisi Ntsalaz for the alleged murder of a 19 years lady who was allegedly a victim of rape by Kheswa.

It was heard in court that pursuant to the alleged rape, accused 2, Kheswa, was assaulted by the family of the rape victim for the abhorrent act and dragged him to Section 28 in Du Noon, where they removed all his clothes and left him naked.

They took photos of him and posted them on Facebook. Having seen the post on social media, Kheswa’s sister called the police, and accused 2 was rescued and taken to Groote Schuur Hospital.

He was later released from hospital and subsequently detained at Milnerton Police Station. He thereafter appeared at Cape Town Court and remained in Pollsmoor Correctional Facility pending the hearing of his trial for the rape matter which commenced in the Regional Court in Cape Town on 2 May 2017.He pleaded not guilty to the charge. On 08 June 2017, the matter appeared for trial in the Regional Court, and the matter was heard and postponed for further trial to 29 June 2017.

During his stay under police custody, he met the third accomplice, Ntsalaz inside prison who was also incarcerated on rape charges. Upon asking what Kheswa was arrested for, Ntsalaz offered his services to have the rape victim disappear so that the matter can be withdrawn as soon as he is released from prison. Kheswa gave Ntsalaz his wife’s contact details after telling her about the deal and they discussed the matter further where he offered to provide his hitman services for R 10 000.00.

Ironically, investigating officer (IO) handling the rape visited the rape victim a day before court appearance, to which he was met with bad news from the mother who informed him that the young lady was assassinated a day before. On 28 June 2017 at about 19h00, a day before the hearing of accused 2’s rape trial, accused 1 received a call from accused 3, who informed her that he had done his job and that the lady had been killed.

Accused 3 asked for the money and accused 1 promised to give it to him the following day. The following day, at about 09h00, accused 1 received a call from accused 3 asking for the ‘blood money’ for killing the deceased. Accused 1 then proceeded to Shoprite to withdraw R5000.00 and handed it to accused 3. Accused 1 promised to pay the balance of R5000 at the end of that month.

Police heard about these details when the IO Warrant Officer Wilmot Shane Isaacs retrieved WhatsApp messages from Bhala’s phone he also found that the two grew fond of each other to the extend that she said she admired how he is passionate about his hitman services where several people would’ve failed.

They shared about each other’s day-to-day situations. It was apparent that Ntsalaz was smitten with Bhala.

“In fact, from reading the WhatsApp messages, the arresting officer noted that accused 1 and 3 appreciated each other considerably. From the WhatsApp communication, accused 1 saw accused 3 as his role model in the crime syndicate sector and wanted to emulate him. In the messages, accused 3 indicated that he did all that he did because he loved accused 1. Otherwise, others did not want to do the thing because the money was less than what they were used to get. This was all included in their WhatsApp chats.”

She was arrested from her work place and denied knowing the hitman at first, until evidence of their communication was revealed and she decided to rather come clean.

“Furthermore, from 3 July 2017 to 26 July 2017, the WhatsApp messages that were exchanged between the two suggested that they were comfortable with each other. In these messages, they shared jokes, and on 4 July 2017, accused 1 asked “if all is quiet”, referring to the murder. In response, accused 3 stated that “all is quiet, but he was advised not to set foot at that place, since some identified him on that day”.

Accused 3 stated that his confidante was keeping an eye for him. On 6 July 2017, accused 3 stated in the WhatsApp messages that others (his team members) did not want to do the job since they were going to get less money, but since he loved accused `1, they did it.

Post-mortem also found that some of the bullets were stuck in the victim’s head. State pleaded for nothing less than a life sentence, to which they were all sentenced to life imprisonment for murder plus 15 years.

Both Kheswa and Ntsalaz are not first time offenders. Kheswa was previously convicted for sexual assault while Ntsalaz was convicted for various charges which includes fraud and unlawful possession of firearm dating from as far as 2009.