Ntuthuko Shoba, the man accused of masterminding the murder of his girlfriend Tshegofatso Pule in June 2020, said he was not worried when he could not reach Pule on the days after she left his home on June 4.

“I trusted Tshego was responsible. Knowing Tshegofatso, she would not have jumped into a car of someone she did not trust,” Shoba said during his cross-examination at the Johannesburg high court on Wednesday.

Shoba said he last saw Pule on June 4 2020, when a car he thought was an Uber came to pick her up outside his Florida home just after 10pm. 

Asked whether, after making a number of calls after June 4, did he not find it alarming that Pule could not be reached, Shoba said he was not worried at that stage.

Shoba added that it would not have helped the policemen any further if he told them that he had met Muzikayise Malephane, the person who is serving a jail term for the murder of Pule, on the day Pule disappeared in June 2020.

Shoba is alleged to have hired Malephane to kill Pule for R70,000.

Prosecutor Faghre Mohammed said Shoba had, throughout his testimony, portrayed a picture of himself as someone who had tried to assist with investigations into Pule’s murder, even sharing footage of the complex at which he lived where Pule was picked up by a Jeep vehicle on June 4.

Mohammed said that after Malephane's arrest, Shoba must have seen that the person arrested for the murder was someone he had interacted with, someone he bought cigarettes from on the day Pule disappeared.

Mohammed said that if Shoba was portraying this picture of trying to assist the police, then why did he not tell the police he had interacted with Malephane.

“Me going there and telling the policemen I was with the guy, I did not see how this would assist the investigation further,” Shoba said.

Mohammed also pointed out to Shoba that when he applied for bail based on new facts in the Roodepoort magistrate's court last year, he had indicated in his affidavit that he did not have any interaction with Malephane on the day Pule was killed.

“I had physical communication with him. I do not think it was very clear,” Shoba explained.

Mohammed said Shoba’s affidavit referred to “any communication”.

“The fact you had verbal communication, one can put that in category of communication,” Mohammed said.

Shoba said this was correct, but said communication can be viewed in different ways.

“If a question was asked if you had seen and interacted with Malephane, I would not qualify it as communication,” Shoba said.

Shoba told the court he had met Malephane at about 1pm outside his home in Durban Deep, and he was there to pick up cigarettes Malephane was illegally selling during the lockdown.

Mohammed said cellphone records showed that Shoba had made a call to Pule at 1.07pm on June 4 2020, and the call was picked up as originating from the Florida Sanlam base station.

Mohammed said that after that call, another call was made from what he referred to as a disputed cellphone number belonging to Malephane, from the same base station.

Mohammed said that at about 1.30pm, both phones’ signals were picked up in the same area at Durban Deep. Shoba said he could not dispute that.

The state has finished cross-examining Shoba and his defence advocate Norman Makhubela is set to re-examine Shoba on Wednesday afternoon.

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