THABANI INQUEST: COP ACCUSED OF LYING

MATSAPHA - The police officer who attended the accident scene of Thabani Nkomonye has been accused of lying and being selective in order to shift blame from the police.

This transpired yesterday, during Day 10 of the inquest into the death of Thabani, where Constable Bhoncozi Kunene from Matsapha Police Station appeared to submit oral evidence. The accusations against the law enforcer were made by Advocate Mduduzi ‘Tsotsi’ Mabila, who is one of the lawyers representing Thabani’s family. After the police officer in question made his submissions, Mabila told him that he was having a problem with his evidence. He submitted that this was because the law enforcer’s evidence allegedly had a lot of inconsistences as some of the things he told the inquest about, were not contained in his written statement recorded on May 8, 2021.

Agreed

He then asked if the law enforcer agreed with him on that but the officer said he did not have a copy of the said statement. Thereafter, the advocate wondered if the statement was recorded from him or he was the one who wrote it. In response, he submitted that he was the one who recorded it. Mabila then asked if he was under pressure when recording it and he responded to the negative. After that, Mabila asked if he would agree with him that when he was writing the statement, everything was still fresh in his mind compared to yesterday, which was after a month and some days. Constable Kunene responded to the positive. “I put it to you that what you informed this inquest and what you never recorded in your statement, is an afterthought,” Mabila said.

However, Kunene claimed that it could only be an omission, not an afterthought. Again, Mabila told him that in his statement, he should have not omitted that he went to Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital to enquire if there were any victims or survivors of an accident that happened on May 8, 2021. Kunene had submitted in his evidence that after attending to different accidents on the day in question, he went with his colleagues to RFM. He alleged that he reminded his colleague to check if there were any victims or survivors who got an accident at Nhlambeni and the response he got was there was none. Thereafter, the advocate put it to Kunene that the reason that this information did not appear in his written statement, was allegedly because such never happened. However, Constable Kunene maintained his claims that they went to RFM Hospital.

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