Hillary Gardee suspect linked to brutal murder of married couple

A man serving a life sentence for the murders of his girlfriend and her sister is facing fresh allegations that he kidnapped a man, and his pregnant wife then shot them dead in front of their minor children.

Rassie Nkuna, one four men charged with the 2022 murder of Hillary Gardee, the daughter of EFF deputy president Godrich Gardee, is on trial in the Pretoria high court for the murders of Lucky and Sabelisiwe Mogashoa.

The couple were killed in March 2022, two months before Nkuna killed his girlfriend Pretty Mazibuko and her police sergeant sister Marcia Mazibuko in Mpumalanga. Other allegations are that after killing the couple, he took their BMW and gave it to Pretty as a gift.

He and his three accused allegedly also killed Hillary a month after the Mazibuko sisters were killed, but charges against him and his co-accused were provisionally withdrawn after a state witness vanished.

Nkuna is also accused of immobilising Nonkululeko Nkosi with a taser in August in Delmas the same year, then strangling her before driving off with her car. He will go on trial for that case in October.

On Wednesday last week, 38-year-old Nkuna appeared in court alongside Jacob Chego — a police officer based in White River, Mpumalanga — for killing the Mogashoa couple. They face charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, fraud and conspiracy to commit murder.

A third accused in the matter, a loan shark named Mhlupheki Makhubela, was shot and killed two months ago in Mpumalanga.

Speaking to Sowetan outside court, Mogashoa’s mother, Maletsatsi Morogoa, said the death of her son had badly affected her health.

“I now go to a doctor  every month because of several pains. I still remember going to the veld where my son and his wife were left lifeless. I still have that image in my head, it is something that I can’t forget.

Allegations are that on March 19 2022 the couple were driving on the N12 in Ekurhuleni approaching the Etwatwa off-ramp with their children, aged one and eight, when Nkuna pounced on them. 

He allegedly got inside the car and directed them to drive into the veld, where he shot them in front of the children.

“The accused [Nkuna] unlawfully deprived the Mogashoas and their children of their right to liberty by keeping them in the vehicle and directing that the vehicle be driven to open veld where he shot the couple,” read the indictment.

After shooting them, Nkuna is alleged to have left the parents’ bodies in the veld, driven off with the couple’s children and dumped them along the way.

A Good Samaritan saw the children roaming about the highway, with the younger one on the back of the older one, and took them to Springs police station. There, the 8-year-old allegedly told police how Nkuna killed his parents.

Sowetan understands that during an ID parade the older child identified Nkuna as the person who killed their parents.

The car was later impounded after it was found in a shopping centre.

Further allegations are that Nkuna also colluded with Chego to release the couple’s other BMW, which was at a police pound. The car had been stolen and later recovered but Chego allegedly used his status as a police officer to release it under false pretences and give it to Nkuna, who then gave it to his girlfriend as a gift.

On Tuesday, the Pretoria high court heard from Caroline Molawa, head of forensics in the SAPS’s handwriting unit, that the affidavit used to release the BMW from the police had a fraudulent signature.

“I was requested to examine the signature in question and compare it with specimen signatures to determine the authenticity of the signature in question. 

“I used microscopic and lighting methods to compare the signature in question and was able to conclude that signature was a simulation signature.

“This means that the person was trying to copy someone’s signature,” Molawa said.

The matter was expected back in court on March 27.

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