Accused Mbadu takes the stand in Angy Peter case

Du Preez died in hospital after suffering severe burn wounds after he had been assaulted and necklaced. He was known to have been a member of the Hard Livings gang, and was suspected of stealing Mbadu and Peter’s TV from their Mfuleni home in the early hours of 11 August 2012.

In his defense, Mbadu maintains Du Preez admitted to selling the TV to a police sergeant identified as “Ta Ager” who worked in the crime intelligence unit at the Mfuleni police station.

It is the couple’s defense that they set out to have the policeman investigated by the Provincial Commissioner’s office and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), but no actions has to date been taken against the officer.

In his testimony, which started on Monday, 4 August, Mbadu recalled that a group of community members had gathered in his yard on 11 August 2012 after hearing news of his stolen TV.

“My neighbours volunteered to help me search for the TV. After a while, a few people came with me to my house. Angy, who wasn’t there at the time, came home and I saw she was carrying a phone which wasn’t hers,” he said.

Last month, Peter testified that she had gone to Du Preez’s home that morning to enquire about the stolen TV, as they knew each other from previous interactions with Peter’s work in the Social Justice Coalition.

Mbadu testified that Du Preez then came to his home around 2pm to fetch his cellphone, which Peter had.

He said only a few community members remained in his yard at that stage, including a neighbour known as Ta Tobz.

“I asked Rowan where he was the previous night and he told me he was out with friends. His grandfather (John Ndlevu) came and told (Rowan) to tell us where the TV was because he knew that his grandson knew about it,” he said.

Mbadu then recalled watching Ta Tobz as he poured water into a plastic basin and sent someone to buy a box of Omo.

“Ta Tobz put the Omo in the basin of water. Rowan was still standing next to him at the time. Ta Tobz grabbed Rowan and put his head in the water. Rowan still said he didn’t know anything about the TV,” he said.

Judge Robert Henney asked Mbadu if he hadn’t thought Ta Tobz’s actions were strange, to which he responded: “I never asked what Ta Tobz wanted to do because he wasn’t in a mood that we could talk to him.”

During cross-examination, prosecutor Phitus Pelesa asked Mbadu how he could’ve allowed Ta Tobz to do that to Du Preez. “So you just let it happen in your yard without intervening?” he said.

Mbadu replied that he told Ta Tobz to leave his premises after seeing what he had done to Du Preez. “I didn’t agree with what he was doing. I told them to leave if they wanted to do things like that, and the group left. I feared it was going to get worse. After a while, I followed the group who went to Rowan’s shack.”

When Judge Henney asked Mbadu why he followed the group to Rowan’s house, he said: “I wanted to see if Ta Tobz was still there. I also wanted to ask him why he took over the issue as if it was his TV that was stolen.”

Mbadu described how a meeting between Du Preez and Ta Ager had been arranged so they could ultimately identify him and report his illegal actions to his police superiors.

“When we got to the place [where] they were going to meet, Ta Ager was standing by the car with the boot open. We were about to cross the road when Rowan ran over and got into the car. Then the car just sped off,” he said.

Mbadu described how they gave chase in one of the community members’ cars and followed them to the police station.

“At the police station we were told that Ta Ager was patrolling the area when he rescued Rowan from the community who was assaulting him. We were so shocked to hear this. We gave statements and opened a case, but we didn’t leave until we got a case number,” he said.

Mbadu told the court that he was forced to move his wife and their two children who were seven and eight at the time to a safe house in Athlone.

“People warned us that Ta Ager was violent and I was scared he would come after us for making a case against him. We had to get out of Mfuleni. It wasn’t easy for us because we had to tell our children why we had to move. In Athlone, there was no transport for our children, so they couldn’t go to school,” he said.

Mbadu said over the next two months he recalled hearing about Du Preez’s arrest and his release on bail in October 2012.

“if someone is suspected of being a thief, they are assaulted without being asked if they were even involved”

“In the community, if someone is suspected of being a thief, they are assaulted without being asked if they were even involved. This is what happens in the community with matters relating to thieves,” he said.

Mbadu agreed with Judge Henney that it was strange for Du Preez to have changed his story after he was assaulted by community members.

In October that year, Mbadu and Peter were arrested soon after Du Preez’s charred body was found by police.

In addition, two eye-witnesses testified placing the accused at the scene of the crime. It was also submitted as hearsay evidence that before Du Preez died, he name “Angy en haar man” as the people who were responsible for his attack.

When Mbadu returned to the stand on 5 August, he maintained his alibi that he was at home sleeping with his wife, Angy Peter, the night of Du Preez’s murder.

“If the police asked me where I was, I would’ve told them where I was. When I was charged, the police just asked me about the driver of a taxi and I told them I couldn’t answer,” he said.

Judge Henney said: “If your alibi was disclosed at that stage then police could’ve checked with your neighbours and family and maybe you wouldn’t be sitting in this court right now.”

Mbadu added that the only reason for his arrest was because he was married to Peter who had quarrels with police because of her work with the Social Justice Coalition.

“The day we were arrested, the police called Angy because we were in Khayelitsha. Not once did they ask her for me or if she was with me. When they got to us, I was going to leave because they wanted to speak to her.”

“I was about to leave and she called me back to give me her wallet because I didn’t have money. That’s when the police asked who I was. When they heard I was Angy’s husband, they arrested me too,” he said.

When Mbadu said he had no problems with police prior to his arrest, prosecutor Pelesa said it highlighted the State’s doubts about the conspiracy theory used as Peter and Mbadu’s defence.

“Why would the police who testified against you lie if they have nothing against you? If they wanted to implicate you, they had your full details. We will argue that some of the evidence by state witnesses and the hearsay evidence of Rowan’s outweigh your version,” Pelesa said.

Azola Diyamani will take the stand to give his account when court resumes 6 August 2014.