Missing councillor was drugged by kidnappers

EKURHULENI councillor Godfrey Mbethe, who went missing more than a year ago, was drugged by his alleged kidnappers.

Khehla Mbatha, Simphiwe Zwane and Langford Twala are on trial for the murder of Mbethe, even though his body has not been found. They are also facing charges of fraud and kidnapping.

Mbethe, of Benoni, disappeared on July 22 2009 after withdrawing R7000 from a local Nedbank branch. His kidnappers withdrew R1500 from his bank account and spent another R14000 on clothing the same day using his bank card.

Yesterday, Captain Bob Bhawanibheekh of the Germiston Police Cluster told a trial within a trial in the Pretoria high court that on June 20 2010, Mbatha pointed out a spot near a squatter camp in Vosloorus as the place where they left the missing councillor.

Bhawanibheekh said the accused willingly took him, police photographer Sergeant Aldo Mulder and a Warrant Officer Zulu to a spot with large cement pipes.

He said they followed directions given by Mbatha from Carnival City to Vosloorus. Along the Vosloorus Road they turned into a dirt road, and about 90m from the main road, Mbatha told the driver to stop.

Mbatha told him they were travelling in two cars. The victim and four men he named in court were travelling in a white Corsa. He also said he could see everything that happened in the Corsa.

He pointed at the pipes as a place they had stopped, and that the victim had sat down on one of the pipes "because they had given him tablets and was feeling drowsy".

Although Mbatha denied Bhawanibheekh's version of the events, Judge Peter Mabuse ruled that he made the pointing out "freely and voluntarily".