Murder in Rosettenville: A glimpse into lucky Dube’s demise

From Jo Trinity

The following is an account through the events that led to the death of Lucky Dube. Dube was murdered on Thursday evening of October 18th, 2007.

About an hour after they pumped two bullets into Lucky Dube, the alleged killers returned to where the reggae superstar laid dead to see if any of the bystanders recognised them.

This was the chilling evidence of a state witness, who also revealed, almost two years after Lucky Dube’s death, that the two men on trial for the murder didn’t recognise him and thought he was a Nigerian.

State witness Mpho Maruping said her husband had confessed his involvement in Dube’s botched hijacking and gave her details on what led to the multi-award-winning superstar’s death.

As Dube’s relatives sobbed, the woman told the Johannesburg High Court of the night Dube was shot as he dropped off his teenage children in Rosettenville, a surbub of Johannesburg.

Mpho is the wife to Thabo Maruping. He (Thabo) was initially charged in connection to Dube’s murder but turned state witness.

Mpho said her husband and three men on trial for murder, robbery, attempted robbery and illegal possession of firearms – S’fiso Mhlanga, Ludwe Gxowa and Mbuti Mabe – had been on the prowl on the evening of Thursday, October 18th, 2007, hunting for a Chrysler to hijack.

After their search proved fruitless, they parked their VW Polo and waited. Then a Chrysler drove up and stopped a few meters from them.

They pounced. Two shots were fired. Dube tried to drive off but he crashed his car into a tree and died on the spot.

Maruping said that on that fateful Thursday, the day Dube was killed, she and Thabo were in Sandton at a timeshare meeting. Thabo kept receiving phone calls and later arranged to meet the three accused in the Joburg city centre.

The four men drove off in a Polo and she drove home in the couple’s red bakkie.

Later, the four returned to the Maruping townhouse and Thabo asked for the keys to the bakkie.

When she asked him what he wanted them for, she realised that the Polo was damaged. Thabo’s explanation was that a taxi had driven into them while they were at a filling station.

Maruping said her husband, Mhlanga, Gxowa and Mabe drove off in two cars – the couple’s bakkie and an unidentified red vehicle – leaving the damaged VW at the townhouse complex.

Her husband called Mabe the night after the murder, asking him to return the bakkie. Mabe returned the vehicle, but Maruping had to take him home.

When she got back she expected to find her husband ready to go to the East Rand Mall. Instead he was glued to the TV.

The wife then asked him why he wasn’t ready.

“He said Mabe had just called and told him to watch the previous night’s (murder) incident on TV. I also sat and watched. They showed Lucky Dube singing, as well as a top-of-the-range Chrysler that had plunged into a tree,” Maruping testified.

After the TV programme, Thabo told her how Dube was murdered.

Her husband told her that he and the three accused drove around Rosettenville, then stopped. A Chrysler C200 came into view and halted. Mhlanga and Gxowa got out of the Polo and approached it.

“Thabo said that while in the car (Polo) he heard a gunshot. Mabe told him to see what was going on. He went to the Chrysler and put his hands on the roof and looked inside.”

“A second gunshot was fired as he went back to the VW. Mhlanga and Gxowa then returned and told him to drive off”, Mpho narrated.

Maruping said she asked her husband why Dube was shot. He said Mhlanga told him that he did not see that it was Lucky Dube and had thought he was a Nigerian.

“When I asked why he later returned (on the night of October 18th) and wanted the bakkie, he said it was because they could not drive a car that had been involved in a collision”, added Mpho.

“He also said they took the bakkie and returned to the scene to see whether anyone had seen them and also to see what was going on,” Mpho further narrated.

Earlier, David Mohlabai, a panelbeater from Springs, said that on October 20th of 2007 he received a call from Mabe, who wanted him to repair his car’s bodywork.

When they met, Mabe – who was driving a Polo – was with someone else, who was driving a bakkie.

The trial was to continue the following month. The alleged killers were eventually found guilty and jailed for life.