One of the men accused of murdering Milnerton pensioner Peter O’Rourke in his garage in 2018 bluntly apologised for the incident in court.
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On Wednesday, Abongile Kondile testified, during which he initially stated that it was not him but Siphenkosi Mavithini who killed O’Rourke.
However, Mavithini was murdered over the weekend, allegedly while trying to protect a pair of women. According to Captain FC van Wyk, spokesperson for the Western Cape police, Mavithini, who was out on bail, was walking with his friend and their girlfriends on Sibiya Road in Browns Farm at around 1:45am.
The group was allegedly making their way to Hazeldean when about 10 men approached them and wanted the women to go with them.
News24 reports that an argument ensued, resulting in a stone being thrown at Mavithini’s head. He reportedly fell to the ground and was stabbed in the chest while his friends fled the scene.
The O’Rourke murder trial continued on Tuesday, in which Siphesihle Ngcozela and Thembakazi Fisonti joined Kondile in testifying. According to Fisonti, she was walking with the accused to a party in Joe Slovo when they took a shortcut through Tijgerhof in Milnerton.
She stated that it was an impulsive decision to rob O’Rourke so that the men could have some money for the Christmas holidays.
She added that she didn’t want to be involved, however, and waited outside on the pavement.
After one of the men ran out to tell her that something was wrong, she went into the garage and saw O’Rourke’s face covered in sticky tape. His airways were reportedly blocked, and he was bleeding.
She then helped tie O’Rourke’s legs so that the group could quickly escape and later stated that they had all been drinking, adding that at least two of them were ‘high from buttons’.
The group was swiftly caught by police, who responded quickly to a call for help, and a toy firearm and a knife not belonging to O’Rourke were discovered at the scene. O’Rourke was reportedly wearing a police-issue reflector vest, which was also seized by police. He was declared dead on the scene.
Fisonti says she regretted the incident and developed depression from it, for which she started taking medication.
According to Kondile, Mavithini was at O’Rourke’s head when the police arrived on the scene. However, during later testimony, he said it was him and not Mavithini, as he was trying to remove the tape from O’Rourke’s face.
He did, however, admit to kicking O’Rourke.
In response to this statement, Prosecutor Leon Snyman questioned why Kondile would change his story and why they would tie O’Rourke up, kick him, gag him, and block his airways with sticky tape if they were just planning on robbing him.
Kondile responded with ‘I don’t know’. Snyman then reportedly asked, ‘Are you even sorry for what you did?’
Kondile just replied with ‘yes, sorry’.
Ngcozela will not testify. The case was postponed to 29 January for a final argument. Until then, Fisonti will remain in jail while Ngcozela and Kondile are out on bail.
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