Emotional scenes as Tshegofatso Pule’s murder trial gets underway
Some members of Tshegofatso Pule’s family were in tears on Monday as they saw her convicted killer Muzikayise Malepane for the first time since he pleaded guilty to murdering her.
Malepane is behind bars after he told the court he was hired by Pule’s alleged lover Ntuthuko Shoba to conceal her pregnancy.
The makeup artist was killed on June 4 2020, while eight months pregnant at the time.
Shoba’s trial started had a chaotic start on Monday.
Court proceedings were scheduled to start at 10:30 am, however the family and supporters were moved to another court due to technical difficulties with the courts recording machines in the initial courtroom.
In the second courtroom, court security would not let everyone inside as there were too many people.
Some families members broke down and accused the court of favouring Shoba’s family.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for, we have waited two years to get closure. This morning scenes were triggered since the family was seeing Mr Malepane for the first time.
“The family got frustrated by the up and down of changing courtrooms, when we came to this court room there was seating arrangement fiascos that happened because some family members were not allowed in. We are a very large family and you cannot pick and choose who comes in as we were all close to Tshegofatso,” said Pule’s uncle Tumisang Katake
Malepane was arrested a week after Pule’s funeral, following his conviction Shoba was arrested.
Katake says the family has not had time to grief, he said the pain is still fresh and they are traumatised.
He expressed that he is anxious however his confident that the state has a strong case.
