By Thapelo Molefe
The State has told the Brakpan Magistrate’s Court that a cellphone allegedly linked to murder accused Matipandile Sotheni was found during a prison search last week.
The prosecution is seeking more time to establish whether communications from the device is connected to the murder of Madlanga Commission witness Marius van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe was shot dead outside his Brakpan home in Ekurhuleni on 5 December 2025 in front of his wife and children. He was referred to as Witness D at the Madlanga Commission, where he had testified shortly before his death.
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Sotheni, a former police special task force member who was arrested in March, faces 16 charges, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, ammunition-related offences and theft.
The State alleges that he was the triggerman in Van der Merwe’s murder and conspired to kill him.
Prosecutor Trott Mphahlele told the court on Wednesday that investigators found three cellphones at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre on 2 September. This was after they received information that Sotheni was allegedly using cellphone while in custody and communicating with people outside the correctional facility.
Nothing was found inside Sotheni’s cell where he stays alone. Investigators found three cellphones on a catwalk behind the cells.
“One cellphone in particular could directly be linked to the accused,” Mphahlele told the court.
The prosecutor said the communication was suspected to be related to the murder case and could potentially provide information relevant to the charge Sotheni is facing.
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The State has since opened a formal enquiry and requested that data from the cellphone or cellphones be downloaded for further analysis.
The discovery has added a new line of investigation to an already outstanding forensic process involving cellphone mapping and vehicle tracking evidence.
Cellphone mapping
The State had previously told the court that the downloading of cellphone data and vehicle tracker information had been completed, with the mapping and plotting of cellphone data remaining outstanding.
Mphahlele said analysts were now working to correlate the cellphone mapping with the tracker information obtained from the accused’s vehicle.
The State wants to establish whether the cellphone movements correspond with the movements of the vehicle on specific dates and at specific times.
“The analyst is working on the correlation of the two sources of information, the cellphone mapping and the tracker report of the vehicle, to see how they tally and how they moved together on specific dates at specific times,” Mphahlele said.
He acknowledged that the State had previously expected the outstanding work to be completed by Wednesday. However, he said the amount of information being analysed had proved more extensive than expected and the analyst required additional time.
The defence opposed the State’s request for another postponement, arguing that prosecutors had already been given sufficient time to complete the outstanding investigation.
Sotheni’s attorney, Chamonay Grobler, who stood in for advocate Piet du Plessis, told the court that the matter had previously been postponed for the tracking reports, cellphone downloads, and mapping and plotting.
She said the State had indicated at the previous appearance on 30 July that the cellphone downloads and tracker report had been completed, leaving only the mapping and plotting.
The State was then given six weeks to complete the outstanding work.
“It is the submission of the defence that a reasonable opportunity has been afforded to the State to finalise this specific aspect of the investigation,” Grobler said.
Grobler also raised concerns about the newly discovered cellphone, stressing that it had not been found on Sotheni or inside his cell.
“As to the cellphone, as the investigating officer alleged in the report, or actually the affidavit handed up to court, the cell phone was not found on the accused, and it wasn’t found in his cell, but a neighbouring cell,” she said.
The defence argued that the discovery was a new avenue of investigation and should not result in an open-ended postponement of the case.
Grobler asked the court to refuse the postponement or, if it was granted, to make it the final postponement and limit it to two weeks.
The State opposed the two-week period, saying it would not be enough time to complete the analysis.
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Mphahlele also told the court that the murder trial was unlikely to take place this year and that, if the matter was eventually transferred to the high court, trial dates would likely fall in 2027.
Magistrate Tlakale Sathekge granted the State’s request for more time, saying the nature of the investigations, particularly the latest cellphone evidence, justified another postponement.
Sotheni will appear in court again on 2 November.
Van der Merwe’s testimony implicated suspended Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department deputy chief Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi in the alleged murder of Emmanuel Mbhense.
Mbhense was found dead at Duduza Dam in Nigel in April 2022 after allegedly being tortured during a robbery investigation.
