Greed led to murder of six

Durban - A Lesotho man confessed to police that greed led him to kill his sister and her five children, according to evidence before the Durban High Court.

However, 23-year-old Tsepang Solomon Mokhali was now disputing this confession, as well as a pointing-out he did at the crime scene.

Mokhali claimed at his trial this week he was assaulted by the police on his arrest at the Lesotho border and en route to the police station.

He also said his rights were not explained to him.

Leonard Babore came home two days after the murders to find his wife Nobuhle Leneha’s decomposing body in their lounge and the bodies of his five children on their bathroom floor.

Leneha was fatally shot and her five children were stabbed a total of 78 times.

Their youngest, a 1-year-old boy, was found alive in their bedroom. Mokhali had lived with his sister, her husband and their six children in Inanda.

He was apparently paid a monthly salary of R1 000 to clean the house and garden, feed the dogs and chicken, and occasional cooking.

According to his confession, he was unhappy with this amount and one day decided to shoot Leneha, with a gun he found in her bedroom, and then steal the money he had seen her counting in her bedroom.

On December 28, 2012 between 7am and 8am, Mokhali apparently saw Leneha in the dining room getting ready to go out. The children were in the bedroom, he said in his confession, and her husband was away on business.

“I walked straight to her in the dining room and I shot her with all the rounds (bullets) in the firearm,” his confession read.

He said all five children came running to see what happened and all of them started crying.

“I took all of them to the bathroom and there were no rounds in the firearm. I took the knife in the kitchen and went to the bathroom.

“It came to my mind that the children were going to make statements so I decided to kill all of them … I decided to leave the last-born who was about one year old,” his confession read.

Afterwards, he said he took the money from his sister’s handbag, took leather jackets and shoes belonging to Babore and then left to see his wife in Matatiele.

When he arrived in the town, he said he went to a toilet where he counted the money, R17 000, and left for Lesotho with his wife.

He said police found the gun in his possession when he was arrested.

According to the confession, he wanted to ask the court to give him a chance to apologise to his family. Mokhali had pleaded not guilty to the murders and to robbery with aggravating circumstances at the start of the trial this week, and had disputed the police statement and the pointing out, on Tuesday which led to a trial-within-a- trial.

On Thursday, police officers testified that Mokhali was fluent in Zulu and was not assaulted into confessing.

They said he was examined by a district surgeon before and after his confession was taken, and again the following day when he conducted the pointing out.

Major Russell Gcwabaza, of the Inanda police station, said he had explained Mokhali’s rights to him before Mokhali did the pointing-out and he also signed a statement confirming he understood his rights.

The trial continues.