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Johannesburg – A man who allegedly killed a pregnant mother in front of her young children appeared in the High Court sitting in Palm Ridge on Wednesday.
Mlungisi Twala, 24, appeared in court for a trial within a trial.
He appeared alongside Alex Ngobeni, 25, who is his co-accused in a separate matter.
Twala, dressed in jeans and a white and blue sweater, took the stand and told the court that the police assaulted him during his arrest in April 2015.
Both men face charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and kidnapping.
This after Charlotte Ramohai was hijacked and shot dead in 2015.
Victim thrown out of car
Ramohai was picking up her 12-year-old daughter from a Soweto school and had her 7-year-old son in the car with her when two armed men approached her vehicle and hijacked it in Bram Fischerville, Phase 4.
Police said at the time that the incident happened after Ramohai's daughter got into the car. As they took to the road, they were confronted by two men with guns.
Ramohai was shot and thrown out of the vehicle along with her children. She died at the scene.
She was three months pregnant at the time of her death. The children survived.
The hijacked vehicle was found several hours later, abandoned in Dobsonville extension 3.
Said Twala: "They [police] found me sleeping in a garage and they asked me if I was Mlungisi and I said, 'yes', and they said, 'this is the person we are looking for', and they assaulted me.
"They kicked me and slapped me once on my face, but no one used their fists."
Similar charges in separate case
Prosecutor Pakanyiswa Marasela said Twala was misleading the court with his testimony and added that Twala should have mentioned this incident when the police officer who allegedly assaulted him testified.
Marasela asked for the matter to be postponed to Thursday.
Twala is also facing charges in a separate matter with Ngobeni in connection with the hijacking and death of a Soweto man - which took place ten days after the Ramohai incident.
According to the State, Twala and his co-accused approached Ebrahim Dassot Mahomed who was sitting in his Honda civic vehicle with one of the witnesses.
The State further alleged that the witness and Mahomed were dragged to the back seat at gunpoint.
The accused drove to Soweto with them and while they were in Soweto, they were forcefully put inside the boot of the car.
The witness was later taken to an open field and left there.
The victim was found dead in the boot of his car.
