The matter against a man accused of murdering Palesa Madiba seems to be dragging on after his lawyer asked the court to excuse him so he can see a doctor.

Dumisani Mkhwanazi’s lawyer, Adv Dominic Thinana, asked the South Gauteng High Court to excuse him as he had a doctor’s appointment to attend.

“I have gone to see the doctor but needed to come to court first. I have some tests that need to be done,” Thinana said.

His client, Mkhwanazi, who appeared briefly, faces charges of murder, defeating the ends of justice, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition in connection with Madiba’s 2013 murder. Judge Prince Manyathi rolled the matter to Tuesday.

Madiba went missing on August 9, 2013 after spending the weekend at the Mkwanazi home in Phiri, Soweto. Her remains were found in a shallow grave at Mkhwanazi's home on December 16 2015.

The discovery was made after an anonymous tip-off to the police. It had taken the police two years to find Madiba's body and almost six years to make an arrest. On Mkhwanazi’s previous appearance, his niece, Matshidiso Mkhwanazi, told the court she had been friends with Madiba since primary school.

She said Madiba was well known to her family, including her accused uncle, because she frequently visited their home. Mkhwanazi told the court that at the time of the murder she was staying at the main house, while her uncle stayed in a back room.

She said her uncle had access to the main house as he ate and bathed there. “He basically stayed with us in the main house and he only went to his outside room to sleep.”

She told the court that when she left home for work, Madiba was preparing to go to school at the Soweto UJ Campus. Mkhwanazi said when she left Madiba at her home she had promised to call her at around 9am when she got to work. “When I tried calling her, her phone went straight to voicemail, but I just said it was poor reception.”

She said after trying several times she failed to reach her.

“I found that strange. When I arrived home in the evening only my grandmother, whom I stayed with, was home,” she said.

Mkwanazi said her uncle arrived about an hour later and told her and the grandmother that Madiba went out during the day and even described what she was wearing to them.

Mkhwanazi said in her desperate attempt to find her friend she went to her relatives but they had no idea of Madiba's whereabouts. “Palesa's family and I then decided to go to the police station and report her missing.” She said when the police searched her home the first time they found nothing.

She told the court that two years later, in December 2016, while visiting relatives she got a call from neighbours to return home and was told that a body had been found in her yard.

She said police searched her entire house and brought sniffer dogs, and ended up digging at the back of the house, where Madiba's decomposed body was found.