I am absolutely not a liberal handwringer, but will someone please correct me here if I am wrong..... Mngeni was convicted as the one that fired the shot that killed Anni, but we now have the state scurrying for an expert witness on gun residue and they have now admitted this crucial evidence was omitted at Mngeni's trial!! Mngeni gave evidence that there was only the 4 grand from SD's pocket as spoil, which him and Quabe split. He was the first to be arrested and (according to Panorama) there is evidence that he only saw the 2 grand from the 4 grand split with Quabe. It seems to me that he was stitched up by everyone. He took the rap for the ultimate shot and it would appear that Quabe didn't tell him about the 10k in the car, and no-one else did either. His co conspirators seem to have been eager to throw him under the bus, whilst hiding the main spoil from him.
Don't get me wrong, Mngeni is absolutely guilty, but it seems to me that this bunch were no strangers to this kind of arrangement, nor of making the most of situations for themselves, despite so called 'arrangements'. Mngeni was arrested first, seems to corroborate SD's story (initially before he denied everything) and didn't seem to want to touch the other's stories with a bargepole. Shame he's dead, he would have been an interesting witness here - but then, he'd have had absolutely no incentive to testify, would he?
Mngeni denied being involved in the whole hijacking, robbery and murder, even though his left handprint was discovered on the right fender of the vehicle. An elderly woman witnessed Mngeni sitting in a vehicle with Tongo and Qwabe on the Saturday, 13 November, 2010 at 3.30pm. She identified Tongo as he once lived in her district but had since moved. It was in Tongo's vehicle they were discussing the plans for that night. There were also other reliable witnesses to the sighting of Mngeni in Tongo's vehicle on that day.
Witnesses came forward that Mngeni was wearing the Prada watch and that he had in his possession the ladies Georgio Armeni watch which he tried to offload for R40000. He sold Anni's blackberry phone to a woman he knew for R500, and had the other 2 phones on him. Friends of his from his district saw him with the digital camera and the jewelry was later discovered in the shack where he was residing after he was arrested.
After the meeting he had in the vehicle with Tongo and Qwabe, another witness saw him in the possession of a gun he had carried in a plastic bag.
The R10000 found in the cubbyhole was shared evenly between Qwabe and Mngeni as well as the R4000 taken from SD's person. Panorama saying he was diddled out of his share, is questionable.
Mngeni also was a known drug dealer and sold methamphetamine, known as Tik. He was definitely a very shady character and his denials were just pure stupidity on his part and he deserved his sentence.
Imo, Mngeni was the most dangerous character of the lot and I'm glad he's dead. Because he pleaded not guilty, the prosecutor's case against him and his co-conspirators was brought to the attention of the DT and the claims made against SD, which of course, they used to their advantage, and rightly so. All's fair in love and war.
The Panorama documentary has been debunked and clearly biased and it was littered with untruths and omissions.
JMO
Here is Mngeni's judgment -
http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAWCHC/2012/202.html