Azwidohwi Gadisi is back in court, but this time with less bravado

An accused who hurled insults and threatened a reporter, seemingly from his jail cell, appeared in court again this week. The controversial traditional healer from the Khubvi area, Azwidohwi Gadisi, appeared in the Thohoyandou Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning, where he is facing a charge of murder.

Gadisi is accused of beating his wife, Nyelisani Phathutshedzo Masakona (32), to death on 27 July this year. After allegedly committing the crime, Gadisi turned himself in to the police. He first appeared in court on 29 July, and the case was postponed to 7 August.

On 8 August, while Gadisi was in custody at Thohoyandou Prison, posts were made on his social-media accounts in which he hurled insults and threats at the journalist who had taken photographs of him the previous day.

When asked how it was possible for prisoners to be active on social media while in jail, the national spokesperson of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Mr Singabakho Nxumalo, said that the department had acted when it had been informed that an inmate had access to the outside community.

“He was searched and found with no cellphone. He indicated that those were old posts that he had made prior to his incarceration. As a department, we did not want to leave anything to chance. We then moved the inmate to a single cell, where he is being monitored closely to ensure that he has no access to contraband,” he said.

Nxumalo did not explain how it was possible for the posts to have been made on 8 August, a day after Gadisi had appeared in court.

When Gadisi appeared in court on Monday, he seemed to have lost his confidence and did not look at members of the media. His case was postponed to 5 September, and he remains in custody.

Date:30 August 2024

By: Victor Mukwevho

Victor Mukwevho Ne-vumbani joined the Mirror during it's inception in 1990. He joined the SABC newsroom in 1995, and was known by  listeners as "A u fhedzisela ari". He was a news editor for The Tembisan Newspaper from 2007 to 2015. He rejoined the Limpopo Mirror newspaper in June 2022 as a freelance journalist.

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