Twin tells of sister’s screams in sjambok murder trial
Witnesses have described the screams of Nosipho Mandleleni as she was allegedly sjambokked to death by former ANCYL leader Patrick Wisani.
|||Johannesburg - Two witnesses have described the desperate screams of Nosipho Mandleleni as she was allegedly sjambokked to death by her boyfriend, former ANCYL leader Patrick Wisani.
The chilling details emerged in the high court sitting in Randburg on Thursday when the murder trial began, almost a year after the brutal attack.
Zukiswa Solani, who lived in the same Yeoville house as the young couple, told how a loud argument and Nosipho’s screams woke her at around 4am on the morning of September 5.
“I heard... a lady screaming. It was Nosipho screaming. I went out of my room into the passage. I listened and after that it was then quiet. I went back to my room and went back to bed,” she said through an isiXhosa-speaking interpreter.
Her version was corroborated by Nosipho’s twin sister Siphokazi, who claims she was also woken up by her twin’s screams.
“As I listened, I recognised the voice of my twin,” she recalled in isiXhosa. “I then went to (Wisani’s) room (and) knocked on the door and Patrick opened the door... He was not wearing anything on his upper body and he had a broken broomstick in his hand.
“I said to him I’m tired of him hitting Nosipho. He then pushed me and closed the door. I stood there in the passage (and) listened. Nosipho was no longer crying, so I went back to sleep.”
Prosecutor Faghre Mohamed confirmed that blood found on a broomstick and sjambok was Nosipho’s.
The next morning, Siphokazi was visiting a friend when she got a phone call to say her sister was dead. When she returned to the house, it was filled with paramedics and police.
On the night of the attack, Wisani had allegedly returned home after joining other ANCYL members at their national congress. It is alleged he flew into a rage when he realised Nosipho had gone out.
Siphokazi confirmed her sister had been to a club with her, but returned home at about 11pm. That was the last time she saw her twin alive.
Wisani, who was the ANCYL chairman of Joburg Inner-City at the time, is also facing charges for intimidating and assaulting Siphokazi and her friend, Zimbini Mathibe.
The trial continues.
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The Star