Murder accused Ntuthuko Shoba has told the Johannesburg high court that he did not have the guts to tell his partner that he had impregnated his now slain girlfriend, Tshegofatso Pule, in 2020.

Shoba finally took to the witness stand on Monday to testify at the murder trial where he is accused of masterminding the killing of Pule, who was found hanging from a tree in Roodepoort in June 2020.

This came after acting judge Stuart Wilson dismissed the discharge application that had been launched earlier by Shoba’s defence counsel as they did not want him to take the stand.

Shoba is alleged to have hired Muzikayise Malephane in June 2020 to kill Pule for R70,000 and is now charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and defeating the ends of justice.

Malephane, who has turned state witness and is serving a 20-year sentence, testified against Shoba as the main witness and alleged that Shoba did not want his other partner, Rosetta Moatshe, to find out about Pule’s pregnancy.

While disputing Malephane’s evidence, Shoba told the court that he had indeed concealed the pregnancy from Moatshe.

Asked why he had kept Pule’s pregnancy a secret from Moatshe, Shoba said he had been “procrastinating” around the issue as he did not want to stress Moatshe since she had recently lost her mother to cancer.

“I could not bring myself to tell her. It was very sensitive, having lost your mom and then finding out that your partner has impregnated another woman,” he said.

Despite evidence before the court that Moatshe had allegedly known of the pregnancy and allegedly sent threatening messages to Pule ordering her to “leave her man”, Shoba told the court that Moatshe had only known about Pule’s pregnancy when her death made news on June 8.

During his testimony in court Malephane had said Shoba had informed him about an R8m trust fund payout that Shoba and Moatshe were awaiting.

Shoba, however, denied knowledge of the payout or having ever spoken with Malephane about it.

He told the court that Pule had only informed him about her second pregnancy around the end of January 2020 when she was already three months into her pregnancy.

Shoba’s lawyer, Adv Norman Makhubela, asked why Shoba and Pule appeared to not have been in constant communication by the time he learnt about the pregnancy.

Shoba replied: “Tshego and I were never in a formally committed relationship. I would say I was in a serious relationship with Moatshe and we would bump into each other, hang out and eventually decide to spend the night together...it was never a very serious relationship.”

Shoba indicated that it was not the first time that Pule had been pregnant and that they had agreed to terminate the first pregnancy earlier in 2019.

“Because of the circumstances on her end and my end, we decided to do a termination,” he said.

When asked about her fights with Pule, Shoba said their relationship was frequently volatile as Pule allegedly wanted his emotional availability.

“We did have frictions quite often. Usually it would be because I would not come when she asked me to come. Another thing was that she was seeking more attention other than the pregnancy,” he said.

In its failed discharge application, the defense had argued Malephane was not a reliable witness since he had lied in his first police testimony.

Makhubela said the state had failed to bring conclusive evidence that linked Shoba to the crime and that suspicion was not enough to want to secure his conviction.

The trial continues.