Mbolombo said Anni's killing was an 'Islamic' thing - Tongo

Cape Town - The middleman in Shrien Dewani's alleged murder plot assumed it was Dewani's wife who needed to be killed because that was an "Islamic" thing, the Western Cape High Court heard on Thursday.

Convicted shuttle taxi driver Zola Tongo said during cross-examination that he had never told middleman Monde Mbolombo that Anni Hindochi was the target.

Francois van Zyl, for Dewani, said this contradicted Mbolombo's statement, which said that Tongo mentioned a man who wanted his wife to be killed.

It also seemed to contradict Tongo's testimony that Shrien had introduced Anni as his wife when Tongo picked them up at Cape Town International Airport on 12 November 2010.

Tongo, the State's 12th witness, has maintained on the stand that he was told Dewani's business partner must be killed and that he only knew later that the "beautiful" woman in the back of his taxi was Dewani's wife.

"I never said that to Monde, that the gentleman said his wife must be killed. It's the same Monde who said these Islamic people like to kill their wives," Tongo said.

"He said he is wondering whether it is not one of these [people]. I said to him I don't know about that but he [Dewani] said to me he wants his business partner to be killed."

Van Zyl wanted to know when Tongo discovered that the woman who had been killed was Dewani's wife.

Tongo replied that he had found out the morning after the hijacking, when he was at the Cape Grace Hotel and police had yet to find Anni or his hijacked vehicle.

Dewani is accused of the murder of his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010. He has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him, maintaining that the couple were the victims of a hijacking on 13 November 2010.

The State alleges that he conspired with others to stage the hijacking in return for R15 000.

Her slumped body was found in the abandoned shuttle taxi in Khayelitsha the following day.

Mbolombo, a hotel receptionist, was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying against his accomplices.

Xolile Mngeni was serving life in jail for firing the shot that killed Anni, but died in prison from a brain tumour two weeks ago. Mziwamadoda Qwabe is serving a 25-year jail term, and Tongo 18 years.