Informer offered victim's phone

2008-12-02 21:02

Ramsgate - The alleged killers of an Austrian footballer attempted to sell his cellphone to a police informer, the Ramsgate High Court heard on Tuesday.

Zwelo Mngoma told the court that Thokozisi Msani, 26, and Simo Msani, 22, attempted to sell him Peter Burgstaller's Nokia 9300 cellphone.

The Msani brothers are accused of robbing and murdering Burgstaller on the golf course at the Selborne Estate on November 23 last year.

Burgstaller, found dead on the 12th tee of the exclusive estate, was robbed of his wallet and his cellphone.

Mngoma, a police informer, said he had been on his way to catch a minibus taxi when he was passing the Msani homestead. He was offered the phone for R800.

"I told him (Thokozisi Msani,) that I did not have the money. I told him I was on my way to receive my pay.

"All he told me was that he was in need of money for transport, because he wanted to leave the area for a while," said Mngoma, employed to drive the tractors used to cut the grass on the Selborne Estate's golf course.

Shown the gun

Mngoma said he saw Msani handing the phone to his brother Simo, instructing him to hide it in a nearby sugar cane field.

As Thokozisi Msani followed his brother, Mngoma said he asked him where he was going.

"That's when he told me he was going to conceal a firearm. I then asked him to produce it to see if I would be interested in buying it. He produced it, but then he told me he was not selling it."

Mngoma said the gun shown to him in court - a 9mm CZ Model 83 Semiautomatic - was similar to that which he had seen on the morning of November 24, except that the gun's grip was wrapped in masking tape.

"He said to me that 'You are the only person who knows about this. Simo is my brother and he won't do anything wrong'."

Mngoma told the court he believed this was a way of telling him that he should not go to the police.

Detained in same cells as accused

He then described how he went to the Scottburgh police station to see a police officer friend. Earlier that morning the officer had told him that "a white man had been shot and killed" on the golf course.

Under cross examination, it emerged that Mngoma was a police informer who was detained for two days in the same cells as Thokozisi.

In an outburst, a wildly gesticulating Thokozisi said: "There are many other people serving sentences because of this witness. They turned you into a state witness."

Mngoma denied the allegations as well as the claim that police officers had throttled both him and Thokozisi while in custody.

Told to say he was assaulted

The court also heard evidence from Derek Mkhize who told the court that Simo Msani had offered Burgstaller's cellphone to him for R500. Police arrested him at his workplace.

Mkhize said he was thrown into the same cell as the Msani brothers.

"They said (to me) that should an attorney arrive, I must say we were assaulted and forced to admit to the commission of a crime."

Under cross-examination, Mkhize denied ever being tortured by police while in custody. He also told the court that he and Simo had attempted to play games on the phone, but that it's battery was going flat.

- SAPA