MYSTERIOUS VISITS FOR SA SUSPECTS

M BABANE – The witness protection sanctity around the two suspects in the murder of businessman Victor Gamedze has allegedly been vio- lated in South Africa.

The Times SUNDAY intelligence gathered that certain people, including a lawyer, have been getting audience with Mbusi ‘Ncaza’ Nkosi and Simphiwe ‘Tata’ Ngubane with an unknown mis- sion.

This publication has been made aware of at least five names of individuals who have either made visits or communicated with the suspects in jail through cellphones. One of such names was identified as a ‘funder’ of the lawyer who now seeks to represent the two during the extradition case. This is despite that the two already have a law- yer designated for the case

These visitors also include the son of a promi- nent local entrepreneur, who is reported to be the one who makes the most visits and phone calls to the two suspects. A well-known socialite is also said to be mak-

ing the visits and phone calls. Several calls have also allegedly been made to the two suspects in which people from Eswatini started conversations with the two suspects. This was done in disregard of the fact that in as far as the murder case is concerned, the two should strictly instruct and communicate with lawyers assigned by the DPP and no other.

The visit by the five people has reportedly sent the local prosecution team into panic mode be- cause they did not anticipate such a development. Nkosi and Ngubane were named State witnesses in the case against Sipho Shongwe, who stands accused of orchestrating the killing of Gamedze. Also, noteworthy is that the accused Sipho Shongwe denied knowledge of Nkosi and Ngu- bane during his bail hearing. His legal team had also taken issue with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions when they en- listed the two as Crown witnesses.

LEGAL PROFESSIONALS CONFIRMED

The Sipho Shongwe legal team’s gripe was that this development was supposed to be communi- cated during pre-trial.  Independent legal professionals confirmed to the Times of Eswatini SUNDAY that it is illegal for lawyers who have an interest in the matter to make visitations and calls to the two suspects as such undermines the independence of the court processes. At worst, it was said this amounted to defeating the ends of justice. One of several highly-placed sources, said a female SA lawyer, whose identity will not be re- vealed, had also made inroads into the two sus- pects, and informed them she was working with their lawyer on the extradition case. “But no lawyer is essential in the extradition case because it was suspended pending other court processes,” the SUNDAY intelligence re- vealed.
What the impeccable sources found to be pe- culiar was that the female lawyer visited the two suspects as soon as a team from Eswatini had paid a visit to the duo. “To be precise, it was about a week after the local team had gone to see the two suspects that they had a surpise visit from this female lawyer,” said one of the sources.

STRUCK DEAL WITH PROSECUTION

The two suspects, who have since struck a deal with the prosecution team in the Victor Gamedze murder case, are said to have quickly alerted the local DPP’s Office about the lawyer’s visit. “They reported to the DPP’s Office that Nth- abiseng wanted to know what the prosecution team had come for and everything they had discussed,” said the sources.

It is understood that a local team working on the Gamedze murder case, as soon as they learnt of the unexpected visitations, travelled to South Africa early this week to talk to the two suspects. They reportedly wanted all the finer details but before they left, they already had all the names of the unexpected visitors.

NUMBERS WERE TRACKED

The sources disclosed that Ncaza and Ngu- bane’s phones showed the incoming calls from the five identified individuals and when the num- bers were tracked, it was verified that indeed they belonged to them. The sources said that Ncaza and Ngubane felt the deal given to them by the local authorities

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