Dudu Busani

Dudu Busani

Mulalo Sivhidzho told the police that her husband had phoned her, saying he was locked up in the boot of his car shortly before he was found dead.

This was after Inspector Willem Croukamp, who attended the crime scene, had questioned her on how she knew that her husband was in the boot.

Croukamp was testifying in the murder trial of Sivhidzho at the Johannesburg high court yesterday.

Sivhidzho is accused of conspiring with Ntambudzeni Matsenene and Arnold Sello to murder her husband, Avhatakali Netshisaulu, in 2006. Netshisaulu was burnt alive in the boot of his car.

Croucamp told the court that he could not continue questioning Sivhidzho after her father-in-law, City Press editor-in-chief Mathatha Tsedu, requested that her statement be taken the next day since she was still traumatised.

Fortune Rakgatlha, one of the firefighters who extinguished the blazing car, said he first saw Sivhidzho at the scene when she screamed that he should check in the boot of the car.

Rakgatlha said the hysterical woman insisted and would not leave. He said when he eventually opened the boot, he saw that there were human remains inside.