Cape Town - The detective probing the murder of three children and a man outside a barbershop in Khayelitsha said he has information that the two accused committed a separate double murder on the same day.
Athule Mtsha and Sithisa Masiko appeared in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court yesterday for bail application in the barbershop shooting on June 8 in Site C.
Investigation officer Sibusiso Manqindi said in an affidavit: “I have information on the accused before court, were involved in a murder case with charges relating to a double murder. I will be able to confirm this through ballistic evidence. The matter is currently under investigation.”
The court heard yesterday how the two men were arrested together in a stolen vehicle on June 9.
In an affidavit prepared by private attorney Phindile Vephile, Mtsha said he had been driving around in the vehicle on the day of the shooting.
He had allegedly been with the two men who ended up dead later that day.
“The incident is said to have happened at 2.30pm, at that time I was not near Site C.
“According to the car tracking system at 2.36pm I was in Site B, when I dropped my friends off.
“Thereafter I went to Kraaifontein and made my way back to Site C after 6pm.”
Mtsha was linked to the barbershop murder scenes by witnesses and the white Toyota Quantum he drove.
He highlighted that he didn’t know his co-accused, they only met on the day of the murder.
Meanwhile Masiko said that at the time of the shooting he was buying his girlfriend ice cream in Brackenfell.
Outside court, his lawyer Amilca Ralawe said: “My client doesn’t have any pending cases and convictions, this is the first time he was arrested but the seriousness of the offence propelled this application to Schedule 6 bail application.
“We have attached evidence showing that at the time of the commission of this crime, he was in Brackenfell. We have attached the proof of payment showing that he went to purchase an ice cream for his girlfriend and chats between the two of them. And we intend to attach the alibi affidavit by the girlfriend to show at the time of the offence he was not in this district. The accused are linked because they were in the same motor vehicle when they came back from the tavern, they were in the wrong place and wrong time, they don’t even know each other and aren’t friends.”
The bail application was postponed to next Wednesday for the accused to present their alibis.
Cape Argus