PATRICK Wisani, the ANC Youth League leader and former community police forum (CPF) member accused of sjambokking his girlfriend to death, had started collecting bail money before he was arrested. This emerged in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday when Lieutenant Nomonde Qilingana testified during Wisani’s bail hearing.
Wisani, 30, who is the chairman for the ANCYL’s Joburg Inner City branch, allegedly beat Nosipho Mandleleni, 24, to death with a sjambok and broomstick.
Qilingana said she had questioned Wisani on the day of the murder at the Yeoville house where the beating took place on a Saturday two weeks ago. He allegedly left after Mandleleni’s twin sister Siphokazi arrived and started pointing at him, crying and screaming: “You killed my sister!”
Qilingana got Wisani’s phone number from her colleagues at Yeoville police station and phoned him. “I asked why he left while I was still busy with him. He responded to say he’s still seeking money for bail (and) he’ll come to the police station,” she told the court through a Xhosa interpreter.
Qilingana said that when she tried to contact him the next day, his phone was off.
That Monday Wisani, accompanied by his lawyer, handed himself over to police.
Yesterday, magistrate Pieter du Plessis granted Wisani R3 000 bail and set strict conditions. He took into account the fact that, as a former Yeoville CPF member, Wisani had connections to the police in the area.
“You may not enter Yeoville at all during the duration of the trial to preclude you from interfering with the investigation.”
This was also because Mandleleni’s twin shared the Yeoville house with her and Wisani, and would be called as a witness.
“You may not communicate with the twin sister of the victim or any other witness, directly or through any intermediary,” Du Plessis added.
He ordered Wisani to report to Khutsong police station every Monday and Thursday and warned him that he could possibly face a life sentence, pending the outcome of his trial.
Mbuyiselo Botha, the spokesman for Sonke Gender Justice, said that in the interest of justice, the outcome of the bail hearing had to be respected.
“But we, as an organisation, will want to monitor the outcome (of the trial) to make sure this woman gets justice,” he said.
The NGO’s Gorata Chengeta called for Wisani to be suspended from the ANCYL.
“It is Sonke’s stance that the conduct of men in positions of power shapes the gender attitudes and related conduct of other men and boys, and thus we consider allegations of this kind of particular concern from a social and gender perspective,” she said.
The case was postponed to October 30.
