National
Wife dies on way to court where three are on trial for husband's murder─── 05:32 Tue, 21 Jul 2015
Pretoria - Shereen Maswanganyi, the wife of former Johannesburg Police Cluster Commander Major General Tirhani Maswanganyi was killed in a car accident in Bultfontein near Hammanskraal on Monday en route to the High Court in Pretoria, where three men are standing trial for the murder of her husband.
The hearing has been postponed to September 7.
Judge Bert Bam postponed the trial of Ndaedzo Isaac Vele, 31, Tshepo Leon Mosai, 31, and Simon Nthone Msibi, 52, for legal argument on Mosai's claim that he did not have a fair trial.
The trial commenced in June, but was postponed after Mosai said he wanted to change his legal representative. He has since appointed advocate Johan Engelbrecht SC to represent him.
At the start of the trial in June there were a series of trials-within-trials to determine the admissibility of statements the accused allegedly made to the police.
They claimed they were severely assaulted after their arrest.
Vele was a member of the SANDF and Msibi a member of the police.
The State alleges the plot to murder Maswanganyi was formed because of unhappiness with the manner in which he conducted certain investigations.
Vele and Mosai were allegedly approached by unknown people to assist in Maswanganyi's murder. They allegedly approached Msibi and two other men and pointed out the general to them.
On June 17, 2013, the group allegedly went to Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, where they spotted Maswanganyi's vehicle, blocked his way and pointed firearms at him before pulling him from his bakkie and forcing him into another vehicle.
They allegedly severely assaulted and strangled the general before dumping him in the veld near Hammanskraal, where his body was found with his hands and feet bound.
A police patrol later found his private bakkie abandoned next to the R101. A police uniform and police identification were found in the vehicle.
