A taxi driver alleged to have raped and killed a 17-year-old in 2020 will know his fate on Wednesday when the Durban High Court makes a ruling on his innocence or guilt.
Durban — The Durban High Court will deliver its ruling on judgment in the trial against a taxi driver accused of killing and raping a 17-year-old girl on Wednesday.
Samkelo Victus Dube is on trial for the 2020 murder and rape of Sibahle Faith Biyela, in his not-guilty statement he explained how he had been taken to the Cato Manor by a relative to report Sibahle’s murder.
The taxi driver claims that after a night of drinking with Sibahle and another woman who is his neighbour, he woke up the next morning to find Sibahle’s bloodied body following which he left to transport his first load.
Further to this on that morning, he was robbed and kidnapped by three men who pretended to be passengers and was kept in an unknown location for two days till he managed to escape to his aunt’s house in Umgababa.
Dube’s version is that after informing his aunt about the body in his house a relative arrived and took him to Cato Manor SAPS to report and from there he was taken to Foloweni SAPS.
He is also alleged to have assaulted Thandiwe Princess Shange by stabbing her with a screwdriver with the intent of causing her grievous bodily harm.
On the evening of Sunday October 4, 2020, Sibahle, Shange, and Dube were socialising together at Dube’s residence where he allegedly had made repeated sexual advances towards Sibahle who rejected these.
It’s alleged that Sibahle and Shange left the accused’s place just after midnight and as they were walking home, the accused ran up to them accusing the deceased of having stolen his cellphone.
An argument allegedly ensued between the accused and Shange, he began assaulting Shange and stabbed her in the forehead with a screwdriver.
During the trial, Dube who is 33, took the stand and told the court how he had covered Sibahle’s body with the blanket he had been sleeping with and that he knew Sibahle as they were in high school at the same time.
On Tuesday the State and the defence addressed the court on the merits of the case where Judge Bruce Bedderson probed Dube’s Legal Aid attorney Zeera Fareed on aspects of her address.
“I find it strange that he would cover her immediately without verifying if she is alive. The deceased was a young child, and the idea of him being at school at the same time as him falls into the background… The first thing he does when he finds the body is cover it he does not check if she is alive, he comes to the conclusion that she’s dead because there’s lots of blood. What does that mean, what inference can one can draw. Is there not a reasonable inference that he knew she was already dead and covered her? The first thing to do for any rational human being is to check if she is alive and get help but he covers her,” probed Bedderson.
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