Trio found guilty of murder after slitting co-worker's throat to silence him

• Three people were found guilty of murder in the Grahamstown High Court.
• The trio slit their co-worker's throat out of fear that he would tell a farm owner they were drinking on his property.
• The court found that the murder was "callous and brutal".

Three men were found guilty of murder in the Grahamstown High Court after slitting the throat of their co-worker, a teetotaller, out of fear that he would tell the farm owner, who abhorred alcohol, that they were drinking on his property.

Judge Avinash Govindjee said in a judgment delivered on Monday, that he was satisfied, on a conspectus of the evidence, that the real reason for the murder was "an alcohol-inspired irrational attempt to avoid workplace strife by killing the deceased".

"The murder that followed was callous and brutal; the deceased's life needlessly extinguished in a manner akin to an animal slaughter," Govindjee said.

On 31 October 2020, Zukile Kewu joined his co-workers, Themba Ntshaba, Nosakuthethwa Faniso and Nonceba Kwakwa, as they socialised and drank at Kwakwa's house.

When Kewu returned home, some of the people he had just been socialising with decided that he would likely inform the farm owner that they were drinking on his farm.

"Their response was to decide to kill him. With a pair of shorts over his face, tripped and pinned to the ground, Ntshaba slit his neck with a knife in the presence of the other accused.

"The resultant 10cm deep cut or stab through the anterior neck and airway was fatal," the 14-page judgment stated.

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Ntshaba, Faniso and Kwakwa were later arrested.

Ntshaba and Kwakwa were also charged with planned and/or premeditated murder.

They later pleaded guilty to the charges.

It was also found that they acted in execution or furtherance of a common purpose in unlawfully and intentionally killing Kewu.

According to court papers, Ntshaba had been under the influence of alcohol, but not to the extent that he could not remember the events of that evening.

The court found that he was aware of the consequences of his actions when "he cut the deceased's throat and killed him without justification".

"Kwakwa had acted with common purpose by assisting to trip the deceased and holding his legs together, tight against the ground, while he was killed by Ntshaba," the judgment further stated.

The court also convicted Faniso of murder, acting intentionally and unlawfully in furtherance of a common purpose.

Read the full judgment here.