A State witness has identified former Blue Bulls rugby player Phindile Joseph Ntshongwana as the man who attacked him with an axe

Khangelani Felix Mdluli told the Durban High Court on Wednesday that Ntshongwana asked him why he had infected his child with HIV/Aids before he attacked him with an axe.

Ntshongwana is charged with the murder of Thembelenkosini Cebekhulu in Montclair on March 20, 2011, Paulos Hlongwa two days later, Simon Ngidi the following day, and an unidentified man sometime that week.

All were hacked to death with an axe.

Ntshongwana is also accused of kidnapping and raping a woman on November 28, 2010, and faces two charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Mdluli said he had just got back from work on March 22, 2011 around 10.40pm, when he saw a silver-grey Peugeot driving slowly on Road One in Lamontville, south of Durban.

He said a man approached him and said: “I’m sure you never thought you would see me again”.  

Mdluli said he told the man that he did not know what he was talking about.

The man then asked Mdluli why he had infected his child with HIV.

“I asked him what was his child’s name. He told me to stop making him a fool because I knew what he was talking about,” Mdluli said.

Afterwards the man grabbed him by his chest and took an axe out of an orange plastic bag.

“I covered my head with both my arms, he struck me on the stomach,” he said.

Mdluli then ran away and Ntshongwana chased him, but he managed to escape.

He told the court Ntshongwana was agitated when he spoke to him.

The trial continues.