A Durban High Court Judge ruled that an adopted son who made a sworn confession, admitting his involvement in a double murder matter, which included a hit on his adoptive father, would be used as evidence.
This after Lwazi Nelson Danca, 25, testified last week that he only made the confession because he was threatened by a policeman, and through his attorney, Maggie Pillay, moved for his written declaration to be discarded.
Danca claimed that the policeman got him to make the confession according to a voice note played to him, or else other methods would be used to get him to comply.
The disputed document became the subject of a trial within a trial in a case presided over by Judge Mfuniselwa Elijah Nkosi.
Advocates Yoliswa Nyakata and Annelize Harrison, who represented the State, argued that the confession was valid.
On Wednesday, Justice Nkosi said: “I have considered the evidence and decided that the confession will be admitted as evidence.”
Relations between Danca and Willem Cordier 65, soured after the part-time actor discovered that his father was gay and had sexual relationships with other men.
It has been alleged that Danca hired his friend, Mlungisi Ndlovu, 26, to murder Cordier in March 2019.
During the fatal attack on Cordier, Ndlovu stabbed him multiple times at his Musgrave flat, where he lived with Danca.
A month earlier, Ndlovu allegedly murdered Durban University of Technology employee Euvette Taylor, 30, by assaulting him with a fire extinguisher at his flat near the Steve Biko campus.
Ndlovu was also accused of stealing Taylor’s VW Amarok motor vehicle and other possessions, all of which he then sold in uMlazi with assistance from Danca.
Both men have been charged with two counts of murder each and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
They have refuted the charges against them.
Once Nkosi ruled on the confession statement on Wednesday, the State responded by calling Lieutenant-Colonel Sibusiso Didi back to the witness stand.
Didi, the officer who recorded the statement, was asked by Nyakata to read the contents of the confession he penned in November 2019.
Danca said on February 10, 2019, he received a surprise visit from Ndlovu, a school friend. Ndlovu arrived with the Amarok and asked Danca to accompany him to uMlazi.
Ndlovu then disclosed that he had killed a person at DUT and stole the individual’s car and other possessions.
“I started being scared and began to think very quickly since he was persuading me to go with him…,” the confession read.
Danca agreed and drove the vehicle to uMlazi’s L-Section. He noticed a flat-screen TV, laptops and other possessions on the back seat.
He met a person named “Sibusiso”, and asked for his assistance to dispense with the vehicle and the other items.
Both accused received payment from Sibusiso for the stolen items and Danca said his initial “share of the spoils” was R500.
Danca said Ndlovu eventually told him that he used a fire extinguisher to assault and kill Taylor and set something alight in his microwave.
A panicked Danka told an uMlazi policeman about Taylor’s death and stolen possessions, but did not relate his role.
The policeman took him to the Berea police station to make a statement before Constable Wonderboy Mkhize, and put the blame on Ndlovu.
A few days later Danca received a text message from Ndlovu enquiring whether he had “sold” him to the police.
Danca denied having any knowledge of a police investigation.
With police constantly checking on him about Ndlovu’s whereabouts, Danca asked Ndlovu to come to his home with the intention of getting police to arrest him there.
But he didn’t follow-up by alerting police, “I just didn’t have the guts”.
Danca’s relationship with his father became “sour” especially after he discovered “nudes and sexual dating sites, which showed that his father was dating people of the same sex”.
His father denied this and got angry when questioned about it and also asked Danca to move out permanently.
Danca got worried when his father bought knives, and feared that it could be used to kill him, which prompted him to consult a fortune-teller, who told him to be “on the lookout”.
With his father constantly “provoking” him, Danca asked Ndlovu to kill him.
A plan was hatched, Danca gave Ndlovu keys to his house and told him about a knife he should use, which was placed near flowers outside.
Danca was in his room when his father was attacked on the evening of March 15, 2019.
“I could hear the cry from my father for help and swearing at the same time. I was busy praying, crying and asking forgiveness from God.”
The trial is still proceeding.