Durban – While the daughter of murdered Chatsworth pensioner Jinsee Ram did not dispute making an initial statement to police, she has told the Durban High Court that she does not recall making the statement.
This emerged on Wednesday in the Durban High Court where Bheki Msomi is on trial accused of murder, attempted murder and robbery with aggravated circumstances in relation to the 2020 robbery in Ram’s home where more than R80 000 was taken.
Msomi was initially charged alongside Simphiwe Cele, who was Jinsee’s employee, however Cele was deemed unfit for trial and was currently in a state psychiatric hospital.
According to evidence that has been led so far in the trial, Cele is the one who strangled Jinsee to death.
Jinsee would have turned 77 years old in August.
Previously, State witness Mthethunzima “Stars” Mpepho, one of four assailants who entered the woman’s Kharwastan house with the intent to rob, had told the court that R40 000 had been taken.
And in cross-examination this week, Msomi’s Legal Aid attorney S Radebe raised inconsistencies in Mpepho’s evidence in chief and his statements made to police.
Radebe had used Sangetha Prithipaul’s statement to draw attention to Mpepho’s inconsistencies in court. The statement fingers Mpepho as the man who assaulted Prithipaul and also states that more than R80 000 was stolen during the robbery.
On Wednesday in court after leading evidence, Prithipaul, during cross-examination, said she did not recall making the statement.
She did not dispute making the statement on the day of the robbery but said she had been injured and “had just witnessed my mother being killed”, adding that she was traumatised.
Prithipaul was being cross-examined by senior State advocate Khatija Essack, who asked whether she knew how much money was taken on that day and she said she did not know.
“I know that the money in my purse was R4 500, it was my own money. I did not know how much the other money was as it was my father’s. He later told me that it was over R90 000 and close to R100 000.”
The trial continues on Thursday.
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