They had been searching for Sivhizdo's husband Avhatakali Netshisaulu when they spotted the burning car and went to inspect it. The search was launched by Sivhidzo after Netshisaulu called her about two unknown cars that were following him. The fire-fighters said Sivhidzo started shouting at them and told them the car belonged to her husband who had been hijacked, and that they should look for him in the bushes and inside the car.
After the fire had been extinguished and the car cooled down, Rakgatla said Sivhidzo told him to open the boot of the burnt car. An unidentifiable charred body was found inside it and the police were called. Rakgatla said Sivhidzo started crying and said her husband had been burnt in the boot. However, both Rakgatla and Jansen said at that point it had not yet been determined who the corpse was, or what model the car was.
It was later established that it was Netshisaulu, the chartered accountant son of former City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu.
No explanation
Sivhidzo, Ntabudzeni Matzhenene and Arnold Sello are facing charges related to the murder, robbery and kidnapping of Netshisaulu. The three had in their testimonies claimed that police tortured them into implicating themselves in the crime. However, when Pandya began handing down his judgment on Monday by going through the testimony of the three -- each one at the time until Wednesday when he delved into Sivhidzo's - he found that they were all not truthful and ruled that they were fabricated.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pandya also read out statements made by Sivhidzo's mother-in-law Dzudzanani Netshisaulu and her under 18 sister-in-law that detailed how the widow disappeared for over an hour during shopping at the Northgate Mall earlier on the evening of December 7 2006.
The two testified that when Sivhidzo reappeared she did not give an explanation where she had disappeared to and they all drove back to their Northriding home in silence. In her testimony, the mother-in-law described how Sivhidzo was rude and uncooperative when police contacted her to inform her that they had arrested a suspect, and wished to interview her and the mother-in-law.
Pandya also went through 10111 police call centre records of Sivhidzo's call when she first alerted authorities that her husband was in the process of being hijacked after he had called her before his phone went off to inform her that two unknown cars were following him. The call that led to police finding the burning car in an isolated bush in Honeydew was made by a nearby plot owner who spotted it.
Netshisaulu was allegedly followed by a group of men from a Caltex Garage in Zandspruit. He was on his way to meet with Matzhenene about a joint venture of setting up payphones in Zandspruit, but he never made it to the meeting. He was allegedly forced off the Nooitgedacht road while driving his VW Golf, assaulted and beaten with bricks before being tied up.
He was robbed of groceries he had in the back seat of his car, his cellphone and wallet. His attackers tied him up and bundled him into the boot of his car before asking him for his bank card pin number to later draw out cash from it.
Petrol was then poured onto Netshisaulu's car which was set alight with him trapped in it and heard by his attackers screaming for help. Pandya postponed the matter to Thursday.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Wife-identified-charred-body-as-husband-20101201-2