Men accused of riddling a police inspector with bullets at Nyanga Junction, are also charged with a string of robberies and the murder of a couple in an alleged two-day crime spree.

Mthobeli Ndwayi, 24, Sandile Habana, 23, Khaya Xhanga, 26, and Bongani James, 27, pleaded not guilty in the Cape High Court to nine charges.

Ndwayi and Habana face attempted murder and armed robbery charges relating to the shooting and armed robbery on Inspector Raymond Solomon at the Nyanga Junction on November 10, 2005.

But Solomon survived and testified in the High Court on Wednesday.

Solomon was the media spokesperson at Manenberg police station and a sergeant at the time of the incident.

He has since been promoted to inspector and transferred to Keimoes in the Northern Cape.

After the shooting, Solomon spent two weeks in the N1 City Hospital

He resumed duty on January 14 last year, about two months after the incident.

According to the charge sheet, the four men were involved in an incident on November 9, 2005, in which the home of Adelaide Burns was burgled while the family was in their house in Weber Street, Delft.

The family was held up at gunpoint and robbed of a laptop, two cellphones, a stash of jewellery, an undisclosed amount of cash and a DVD player.

On the same day, they allegedly burgled the home of Luvuyo Kwankwa in Nyanga. A firearm and ammunition and jewellery were stolen from the house.

On November 10, the accused allegedly broke into the home of George and Sonia Nette near Nyanga and gunned down the couple.

The pair had hidden in the bedroom and Nette shot at the accused, wounding Ndwayi. But they shot back and wounded them both.

Nette died on the scene and his wife died later in a city hospital.

The accused face charges of murder, attempted murder, housebreaking, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.

Judge Essa Moosa postponed the case to Monday.

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