Shoba's defence to grill police expert over disputed cellphone records before the murder

The defence counsel for the alleged mastermind behind Tshegofatso Pule’s murder is expected to cross-examine a police expert who gave evidence which disputed his client's claims that he did not know the alleged unregistered number which he is accused of having used when plotting the hit.

  W/O Andries van Tonder returned to the stand on Tuesday to testify on the cellphone records regarding the disputed number in relation to June 4, when Pule was killed.

The court heard that while Shoba had denied knowledge of the unregistered number, it was identified to be always in the same location as his other registered cellphone number after the analysis of data obtained from cellphone network providers.

State prosecutor Faghre Mohammed said he had already spoken to network providers, including Telkom, to come to court and corroborate the evidence.

“They are busy arranging base station specialists to come and testify and give clarity regarding the radiuses. After today we will have clarity as to when they will be available to come to court but I am putting pressure on them to prepare to avail themselves this week,” Mohammed said.

Pule, who was eight months pregnant at the time of her death, was found hanging from a tree four days after her disappearance.

Pule’s convicted killer Muzikayise Malephane  has testified that Shoba had repeatedly used the number to call him as before they met to finalise the plan to kill Pule, but Shoba, through his lawyers, had denied knowledge of the number.

Shoba’s lawyer Adv Norman Makhubela asked for an hour’s adjournment after Van Tonder’s evidence in chief, as he wanted to consult further before beginning his cross-examination.

Makhubela had previously indicated that the defence would also want further verification by network providers of the radius of cellphone towers from cellphone towers, as Shoba wanted to dispute some of the evidence.