DURBAN - A MAN in a yellow T-shirt had an object in his hand, an ”ice-pick hold”, before he struck Mondli Majola in Phoenix during the July unrest, Dr Sagran Naidoo testified at the Verulam Magistrate’s Court.
He was speaking about his observation of the video evidence of an incident where Ned Govender and his brother Dylan are accused of killing Majola and of the attempted murder of others in Palmview, Phoenix. The footage was retrieved by police from a CCTV camera outside a house where Majola had passed away.
The brothers were applying for bail.
The initial post-mortem, conducted on July 12, found that Majola had died from stab wounds. However, the State disagreed with this finding, so they had Majola’s body exhumed for a second post-mortem on October 13.
The second report stated that Majola had died of a gunshot wound to the head and a stab wound to the leg.
The defence called specialist forensic analyst Naidoo. On Wednesday, Naidoo said he played the video repeatedly. He took still images by printing screen shots in a time sequence and where pertinent.
“The deceased slips on the grass and slides several feet downwards with his feet and lands on buttocks while applicant 1 (Dylan) is reaching him. The deceased is in the sitting position but has half-turned towards applicant 1 who has now reached him.
“My impressions of the sequence of injuries to the deceased are that applicant 1 (Dylan) appears to deliver two short and rapid strikes to the region of the head with the right hand in two quick jerking downwards motions. The deceased falls backwards and remains motionless.
“A few seconds later the yellow-shirted person is somewhat obscured by applicant 1 in his motions when he first reaches the deceased.
But it would appear that there are two downward jerking motions of his (yellow shirt) body and arms when standing at the left side of the deceased.
“These are to the head region of the deceased. Yellow shirt strikes once at the left thigh. He strikes at the upright head of the deceased. He also strikes twice in quick succession to the right thigh of the deceased. The deceased gets up to a standing position, stumbles and collapses for the final time.”
Naidoo told the court that he believed Majola was struck with the butt of a gun.
“I do not believe that both strikes were gunshots. There was no blood on his clothing neither was there frothing or excessive blood around the jaw, mouth and nose. Blood will pour out of the wounds and also soak the inner part of the throat because of the damage to veins in the neck and head region. The deceased would have been coughing out blood.”
Prosecutor Nelson Mazibuko reminded Naidoo that he was brought before the court to assist the court to arrive at a just decision. Mazibuko said the first police officer on the scene stated in a report that Majola was allegedly shot.
Naidoo told the court that mistakes by pathologists occur regularly. Magistrate Irfaan Khalil is expected to deliver his bail decision later this month.
Detectives alleged that Dylan shot Majola in the head, which Dylan denied. Defence attorney Carl van der Merwe and advocate Christo van Schalkwyk SC have disputed the new post-mortem results.
On Thursday, nine other Phoenix men will appear in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court for the continuation of their bail application.
They face charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and public violence. The murder charge relates to the death of a man who was captured on CCTV footage fleeing from a mob at a garage in Northern Drive, Phoenix. He subsequently died.
Daily News