Trevor Gopal, 52, the owner of Teez Tavern.
Image: File
In a gripping testimony at the Durban High Court, Linda Khawula recounted the brutal attack that left her friend dead during the July 2021 unrest in Phoenix.
Trevor Gopal, 52, the owner of Teez Tavern; his son Tyreece Govender, 21; Ravine Naidoo, 67; and Timothy Govender, 46, have been charged with murder, attempted murder, and malicious damage to property.
They were alleged to have been part of a group of residents who assaulted and killed Khawula’s friend Njabulo Dlamini outside the tavern.
He was 31 and from Inanda.
Gopal faces a further charge of incitement to commit public violence after he allegedly gave instructions to his security guards and people from the community to assault and burn the victims.
In the Durban High Court on Tuesday, Khawula, a State witness, told the court that she was travelling in a Toyota Quantum with her friends Njabulo Dlamini, Sanele Merase, Nkosikhona Madlala, Mthobisi Ntuli, and Sandile Sambo.
She testified that on July 12, 2021, the six of them were on their way to Teez Tavern, in Grove End Road, Phoenix, to buy cocaine.
The taxi belonged to Sambo and Merase – it was their family business.
Khawula said on their way to Teez Tavern, they were stopped at two informal roadblocks which were set up by the community to stop people from going in and out of Phoenix.
At the time, tensions were high among communities as a massive wave of civil disobedience, arson attacks, and mass looting quickly spread across KZN and Gauteng from July 9 to 18, 2021.
Khawula said when they drove through the second informal roadblock, the taxi’s side mirror hit the arm of one of the community members who were stopping people from entering.
“The driver stopped when he heard a loud bang at the back of the taxi. People at the roadblock had smashed the window.
“We then drove off and headed straight to Teez Tavern, because they had the type of drugs we wanted. At the tavern, Mthobisi went inside to buy the drugs. Sanele and Nkosikhona went to urinate and then he inspected the vehicle,” she told the court.
She said when Ntuli returned to the vehicle with the drugs. He gave it to Sambo to prepare it.
At that point, she claimed vehicles arrived out of nowhere and about four men came up to them.
They demanded to know who the driver of the vehicle was, and minutes later they were joined by a crowd of people.
She testified they were told to exit the vehicle and believed that the motive was to rob them and make an example of them due to the high tensions among Indians and Blacks during the unrest.
Khawula claimed that Gopal, his son, Naidoo and Govender were a part of the crowd beat them with baseball bats, golf sticks, hammers, and sjamboks.
She said she fled when someone fired a shot in the air, and sought refuge in a container which had been used as a makeshift house near the tavern.
She alleged that she watched her friends being beaten, and pallets being placed on top of them so that they could be burnt alive.
She said five days after Dlamini's killing, she was interviewed by a New York Times journalist, where she stated: “I do not like how I feel since that happened to me because now I have hate in my heart.
“I feel hate towards Indian people when I did not feel it before.”
According to the indictment, Gopal intentionally incited his security guards and members of the public to unlawfully and intentionally commit acts of public violence against black Africans visiting Phoenix.
He and his co-accused are alleged to have killed Dlamini by hitting him with golf sticks, baseball bats, an iron rod, sjamboks and then setting him alight, resulting in his death at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital July 12.
They are also accused of the attempted murders of Madlala and Sambo, by hitting them with golf sticks, baseball bats, sjamboks and putting wooden pallets on their bodies before pouring liquid fuel on them with the intent to burn them to death.
They were charged with malicious damage to property for dousing the R600, 000 taxi with fuel and setting it alight.
“The accused and about 20 others assembled with intent to forcibly disturb public peace or security or to invade the rights of other people. They unlawfully gathered at Teez tavern and attacked six occupants of the minibus,” the indictment read.
A post mortem examination revealed that the cause of Dlamini’s death was blunt force head injuries.
The State has 19 witnesses. The trial continues this week.
