---
title: "Tshegofatso Pule: Murder accused ditches Legal Aid lawyer for private attorney"
description: "Murder accused Mzikayise Malephane has appeared again in the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "NEWSFLASH"
author: "News24"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/news24/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-06-24-tshegofatso-pule-murder-accused-ditches-legal-aid-lawyer-for-private-attorney/"
published: "2020-06-24T14:32:15"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 130
---

# Tshegofatso Pule: Murder accused ditches Legal Aid lawyer for private attorney

> Murder accused Mzikayise Malephane has appeared again in the Roodepoort Magistrate's Court.

By News24 · Published 24 June 2020, 16:32 SAST

## Content

The accused appeared via a video link on Wednesday from Krugersdorp Prison.

Malephane briefly told the court that he was abandoning the services of a Legal Aid lawyer and would secure his own private attorney.

Malephane, 31, is facing a premeditated murder charge after he allegedly killed 28-year-old Tshegofatso Pule.

Pule, who was eight months pregnant, was last seen by her relatives on 4 June, leaving her Soweto home to visit her boyfriend, Ntuthuko Shoba, in Florida.

CCTV footage shows Pule getting into a Jeep as she leaves Shoba's apartment, the Sunday Times previously reported.

The young woman's body was found hanging from a tree in Roodepoort's Durban Deep on 5 June. She had been stabbed in the chest.

She was positively identified by her family three days later. **NEWS24/DM**