Xolile Mngeni, who is on trial for the murder of Anni Dewani, seemed to change his story when quizzed about his cellphone number.
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Cape Town - A man on trial for the murder of tourist Anni Dewani seemed to change his story when quizzed about his cellphone number, in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
Xolile Mngeni, 25, first said he was using his SIM card in his ex-girlfriend's phone at the time of his arrest on November 16, 2010.
When the State asked him why the arresting police did not find this phone, he said it had been lost.
“That's not what you said earlier on,” Judge Robert Henney said.
Mngeni said the court must have misunderstood him, or that he must have made a mistake.
Mngeni has pleaded not guilty to hijacking, robbing and killing Dewani in Gugulethu on November 13, 2010.
He explained during cross-examination that the phone was lost before his arrest, and that he then made a SIM swap. He did not have a phone after that.
Prosecutor Shareen Riley asked how long before the arrest the phone was lost.
He said it was a month or two months beforehand.
Riley said this did not make sense and referred to the court record, to read out Mngeni's previous answer to what phone he was using during November 2010.
Mngeni had said at the time: “I was using a J700”, but on Wednesday he repeated that the phone had been lost by then.
“Why didn't you tell your counsel that?” Riley asked.
Mngeni replied: “I made a mistake.”
The trial continues. - Sapa