Johannesburg - Siphokazi Mandleleni must have felt like history was repeating itself when her twin sister’s alleged murderer, Patrick Wisani, assaulted her and threatened to kill her in the same brutal way he did her twin.
This emerged in the high court sitting in Palm Ridge on Tuesday shortly before a warrant was issued for Wisani’s arrest.
At the time of the alleged murder of Siphokazi’s twin sister, Nosipho, in September last year, Wisani was the ANC Youth League chairman for the Joburg inner city.
On Monday, the State applied to the court for an urgent application to have Wisani’s bail revoked when it heard of the attack on Siphokazi.
She is a State witness, and Wisani’s bail conditions stipulated that he was not allowed to make contact with any of the witnesses.
Wisani and his lawyer, Mpho Selepe, failed to appear in court on Tuesday, despite Selepe confirming on Monday that they would be present.
Prosecutor Faghre Mohamed asked the judge to issue a warrant of arrest.
Wisani was arrested in September after he allegedly brutally beat his girlfriend, Nosipho Mandleleni, to death with a sjambok and broomstick, reportedly because she was not at home when he returned from the ANCYL national congress in Midrand.
Siphokazi, who was living with her sister, found her body.
It emerged in February that Wisani had resigned from all ANC and youth league activities pending the outcome of the case.
Siphokazi laid charges of assault and intimidation against Wisani at Yeoville police station after he assaulted her on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the investigating officer, Warrant Officer John Monyai, revealed the details of the attack, which took place when Siphokazi and a friend left a club in Nugget Street, Doornfontein.
“They were approached by Wisani, who started to threaten her, saying she should withdraw the (murder) charge against him and not testify or else he’d kill her like her twin sister,” he explained.
The woman was then slapped by Wisani and dragged along the ground before a passing motorist intervened and gave her a lift home.
Monyai said Siphokazi had a medical report and a witness.
Mohamed read from the Criminal Procedure Act to substantiate his request for Wisani’s arrest.
“If the accused is not present when the prosecutor applies to the court under subsection 1, the court may issue a warrant for the arrest of the accused.”
Judge Ratha Mokgoathleng said Wisani had violated his bail conditions. “Namely that he assaulted witness number four, the twin sister of the deceased. I authorise a warrant for the immediate arrest of the accused.”
Last month, the twins’ mother, Noxolo, told The Star that she knew of two other occasions when Wisani had assaulted her daughter during their almost two-year relationship. The first time was when she learnt that Wisani had lashed both her daughters with a chain, apparently because Siphokazi had been defending her sister from him.
Wisani allegedly apologised and convinced her not to lay a charge against him.
About a month before Nosipho’s death, Noxolo noticed that she had been badly cut all along her breast and on her hand. Her daughter had told her she was injured in a fall.
The Star revealed in September that this wasn't the first time that Wisani had savagely attacked a woman.
Maurice Smithers, former treasurer at the Yeoville Community Policing Forum, said Wisani’s membership in the forum had been suspended in 2012 after it emerged that he had brutally beaten a woman.
“It came to the CPF’s attention that Patrick had been observed beating up this woman and he had consequently been suspended from the CPF. We don’t know if a formal charge was ever laid. To our knowledge, she was in a coma and wasn’t able to open a case,” he said.
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The Star