The death of Tshegofatso Pule has re-introduced the problem South Africa has with gender-based violence (GBV).
The images of her lifeless body, dangling on a tree at the Durban Deep gold mine veld in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, are burned into the membranes of those who discovered her body three days after she went missing.
Tshegofatso Pule was last seen on CCTV camera leaving her boyfriend’s apartment complex on Westlake Road, Florida, and getting into a grey Jeep on the evening of Thursday 4 June 2020.
A forensic examination determined that she had died from multiple stab wounds to the torso. This corroborates the accounts provided by Muzikayise Malephane, the suspect who was arrested and charged with the 28-year-old’s death.
Malephane was not granted leave to submit a plea to the charges of murder. However, we understand that he is fully cooperating with detectives and according to his statement, Pule was attacked in the Jeep by a suspect who is the real mastermind behind the attack.
In a police statement seen by Sowetan, Malephane claims he was hired to kill Pule and had attempted to execute the instruction a month ago.
When things didn’t pan out as expected, the hit was expedited to that fateful evening. If successful, Malephane was going to be awarded R70 000.
The faces behind the alleged murder of Tshegofatso Pule
The question that remains is: Who is this person Malephane is referring to?
The investigation into the homicide of Pule is far from over and detectives have yet to make another arrest.
However, the evidence collected so far has built a solid circumstantial case against two other persons of interest: Ntuthuko Ntokozo Shoba, Pule’s boyfriend and father of her stillborn, and Rosetta Moatshe, the woman who was married to Shoba.
Motive is a subject that has yet to be formally established by authorities. So, everything we state below is surmised from a collection of statements made by the Pule family, relatives of Malephane and Shoba’s father.
We also considered rumours that have been floating around on social media but take these with a grain of salt as they are untested claims that are highly speculative in nature. We saw it fit to include them as a way of broadening the discussion around a homicide case that has gripped the nation’s attention.
Muzikayise Malephane
Malephane was arrested on his way back from Mpumalanga, a week after Pule’s body was discovered. He appeared at the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court briefly on Wednesday 17 June 2020 and recanted his right to apply for bail.
According to his mother, who spoke in anonymity with Sunday Times, Malephane was childhood friends with Shoba.
“Shoba and my son were good friends when they were younger, they grew up together when we lived in Pimville (a settlement in Soweto, Johannesburg),” she claimed.
While there is no direct link between Malephane and Pule, the suspect’s statement to police places him at the scene of the murder on that fateful evening.
In his own admission, Malephane was allegedly travelling with another suspect when he picked up Pule at Shoba’s residence.
Malephane claims it was this suspect who allegedly stabbed Pule multiple times in the car. Thus far, he has only admitted to participating in the hanging of the body at Durban Deep gold mine.
The suspect is expected to return to court on Wednesday 24 June.
Ntuthuko Ntokozo Shoba
Shoba is the boyfriend of Pule. It is believed that he was involved in an extramarital affair with the slain beautician.
He is also one of the last people to see Pule alive. The last time her family heard from her was through a text message she had sent shortly before she was killed.
It seems the two had gotten into a heated argument and Pule had demanded to be taken home, a request Shoba obliged to.
It’s claimed that Shoba had contacted a taxi service to transport Pule home. This, as we know it, could not be true since the driver of the Jeep was none other than Malephane.
This casts a shadow of doubt in Shoba’s version of events. Speaking with Sunday Times, his father, Mzwakhe, claimed his son does not know the people who drove off with Pule.
“All he saw was the grey Jeep. It was assumed it was a taxi, but it doesn’t seem like it,” he said.
It is public knowledge that Shoba was involved in an affair with Pule who, in the midst of this sexual relationship, had fallen pregnant with his child.
Shoba is still a free man and from what we understand, he has not been called in for questioning by authorities as yet.
Rosetta Moatshe
Much of the conspiracy theories that have sprung up on social media surround a woman by the name of Rosetta Moatshe.
From our understanding, Moatshe is the wife — or romantic partner — of Shoba. It is well-documented that Moatshe was very much aware of Pule’s involvement with Shoba.
According to a relative who spoke to Sowetan, the two had fiery encounters in the past. There is no record of Moatshe’s whereabouts on the night Pule was killed but social media rumours have placed her as the alleged mastermind behind the 28-year-old’s death.
A Facebook user known only as Kr Chè Gaoganediwe brought up a wild theory that fingers Moatshe as the person with Pule’s blood on her hands.
In the viral post that has since been deleted, Gaoganediwe claims that Moatshe had recently received a huge payout from the alleged passing of her mother.
A portion of this, he claims, was to be used to finance the alleged hit on Pule, a payout of R70 000 that was allegedly earmarked for Malephane.
However, for the most part, much of these claims are unfounded and have not been corroborated with any other circumstantial evidence in the case.
Moatshe and Shoba remain free for the time being and have not been named by investigators as official suspects in the homicide.
Interestingly, though, the couple has since deactivated their respective social media accounts.