JOHANNESBURG – Hospital records read in the Johannesburg High Court show that alleged hitman Musa Kekana told doctors, on the day of his arrest, that he had been suffocated with a plastic bag and had started coughing up blood.
Kekana, accused number one in the trial of alleged underworld figure Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, continued his evidence-in-chief on Tuesday in the trial-within-a-trial that will decide whether evidence obtained after his arrest on 17 April 2024 is admissible.
Led by his advocate, Riaan Gissing, Kekana also denied the state’s claim that he was ill before his arrest.
He said his constitutional rights were only explained the day after the alleged torture, and disputed parts of his own 2024 bail affidavit, which he says he signed without reading.
Kekana told the court that a private security company paramedic was waiting outside his home after the alleged suffocation, but he was told he would be examined at 8th Road instead.
He said that at 8th Road, police took photographs and DNA samples before the paramedic examined him.
“On arrival, he then checked me, gave me an oxygen mask with an oxygen tank, and then informed them that I need to go to hospital,” Kekana said.
He said they waited, but a government ambulance did not arrive, and a Netcare 911 ambulance was eventually called.
Kekana said the ambulance was told to take him back to his house before going to hospital.
There, he said, an officer in civilian clothing standing next to Captain Pimi Sekgobela questioned him, pulled him around and threatened him.
“I do not know the name of the police officer and he was in a civilian clothing, but he is a police officer,” Kekana said.
He said the officer repeatedly pulled off his oxygen mask and said he was only pretending to be sick.
Asked what he told the Netcare paramedic, who earlier testified for the state, Kekana said: “I just told her that the police assaulted me and suffocated me.”
It is common cause that the Alexandra Clinic refused to admit him, and that he was admitted to Edenvale hospital from 17 to 20 April 2024.
State witness Lieutenant Colonel Tumelo Tsotetsi has testified that Kekana was coughing at the scene and said he had recently been in hospital.
Asked whether he was coughing when police arrived, or in the two weeks before his arrest, Kekana said: “No, I was not coughing, I was well.”
Gissing took Kekana through his hospital file.
A note by Dr Du Toit records that Kekana was “allegedly suffocated with plastic bag overhead, then started coughing up blood”.
The note records one day of coughing, which the court heard means the cough began that day.
“I informed the doctor that the coughing started today,” Kekana said.
The same note records that Kekana was admitted to hospital on 3 March 2024 for about a week after being poisoned, and was intubated. Kekana confirmed he told the doctor this.
Other records point the other way. A note by Dr Mazibuko records a two-week history of cough, and the paramedic’s report refers to an admission about two weeks earlier.
Another entry refers to food poisoning a week before.
“I did not mention weeks, however, I did inform her that I was poisoned at some time,” Kekana said of the paramedic.
“I did mention that I was admitted to hospital, but not a week ago, and I did not say anything about food poisoning,” he said.
Asked what he told staff, he replied: “I said poisoned.”
Of Dr Mazibuko’s note, he said: “She’s mistaken. Maybe she saw that from the files.”
Gissing told the court that Dr Mazibuko had conceded in her evidence that Kekana told her he had been assaulted by police, although this was not in her notes.
“Yes, I do confirm I did inform the doctor of my assault,” Kekana said.
A further note records that Kekana said he was suffocated at the police station.
Kekana said he told the doctor about the suffocation, “but I did not mention the police station because at that time I had not yet been to the police station,” he said.
Kekana said he was never alone in hospital. “The police were close by at all times. However, my leg was handcuffed to the bed, not my hand,” he said.
“Police officers were present at all times, so all discussions contained in my medical report or hospital report were in the presence of a police officer,” he said.
He said the only time he was without a guard nearby was during an X-ray, when officers stood beside the machine.
Kekana said he “only heard of my constitutional rights the next day when the police officers came to hospital to charge me,”he explained.
His warning statement, dated 18 April 2024 and bearing his signature, records that once his rights were explained, he chose to consult a lawyer.
“I elected to have legal representative,” Kekana said.
Asked what he would have done had his rights been explained at the scene at 8th Road or at his home, Kekana said he would have asked to speak to his legal representative.
A notice of rights before the court, signed by Sekgobela, states that Kekana’s rights were explained at Bramley at 8pm on 17 April 2024.
Kekana said the document “came with a police officer on the 18th at hospital”, and that he was told to sign it.
Kekana testified that his then attorney, Victor Mashele, took his instructions in prison towards the end of April 2024, and that he signed the affidavit in the court cells on the morning of 8 May.
“No, I did not read the statement because what happened in the morning there was some sort of confusion which court we are going to, and then finally when they had confirmed which court, then the lawyer said I must initial and sign. So I did that,” he said.
“There was no time for it to be read back to me.”
He said that when his advocate read the affidavit in court, “he was reading different things from what I had mentioned,” he told the Court.
“I then informed him that it seems like there’s a mistake,” Kekana said of Mashele.
He said the attorney told him not to worry, because it was only a bail application and other matters would be discussed later.
Kekana also disputed the evidence of the state’s first witness, a CAP Security employee, who testified that Kekana drove his tenant’s white Hyundai out of his property nose first that morning.
He said he reversed out in his Mercedes-Benz Viano because his driveway is narrow. “If you were to come out nose first, then it will hit the pavement,”he said.
Asked whether he saw the witness at 8th Road, he said: “No, I first saw him here in court.”
Kekana is on trial with Matlala, Tsakane Matlala, Tiego Floyd Mabusela and Nthabiseng Nzama. The five face 25 charges, including attempted murder.
The police officers Kekana has named have denied assaulting him.
The allegations have not yet been tested in cross-examination, and all the accused are presumed innocent.
