Lubisi, 43, was arrested in Nelspruit on Tuesday for the murder of eight people at Lavisa Lifestyle tavern at Pienaar outside Mbombela last Saturday.
Lubisi is the second person to be arrested for the killings after Patrick Bongani Nkosi, 39, was arrested on Sunday.
They both face eight counts of murder, two attempted murder charges, robbery with aggravating circumstances and the possession of unlicensed firearms.
State prosecutor Adv Benet Jali told the court about Lubisi’s 2017 conviction.
“The accused has a previous conviction where he was given a five months imprisonment or a R5,000 fine in 2017 for assault GBH.”
Jali also said Lubisi’s case should be merged with Nkosi’s. He requested that the matter be postponed so that they can both apply for bail.
Magistrate Nandi Mhlanga postponed the case to January 22 for a formal bail application.
During a media briefing on Wednesday, Maj-Gen Zeph Mkhwanazi said reconstruction of the scene had revealed what happened before the killings.
He said the information at their disposal was that the victims were travelling in two VW Polos and went to Lavisa Lifestyle on Friday night.
“After reconstruction of the crime scene, we have concluded that one of the men in the two Polos, grey and blue, was shooting randomly, and not in the direction of anyone but in the air. They left Lavisa Lifestyle tavern and went to another one where he [the gunman] continued to do the random shooting.”
Mkhwanazi said the group returned in the early hours of Saturday and as they were getting out of the cars, the gunman started shooting randomly again and that was when the two suspects suddenly emerged and started shooting them.
He added that after the shooting, no gun was found at the scene, including those of the deceased.
“Six of the victims died on the scene while two died in hospital, and two were hospitalised. One of them has since been discharged,” said Mkhwanazi.
SowetanLIVE
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/authors/khoza-mandla/
www.sowetanlive.co.za
