KEY WITNESS IN VICTOR GAMEDZE’S MURDER CASE ARRIVES

MBABANE – The moment of truth has never been so nearer in the murder trial of businessman Sipho Shongwe.

On Friday afternoon, doubts were put to rest after South African national Siphiwe ‘Tata’ Ngubane - a key witness in the trial where Shongwe is alleged to be the mastermind behind the death of business mogul Victor Gamedze – was extradited into the Kingdom of Eswatini. He is expected to give crucial and incriminating evidence against Shongwe. The Times SUNDAY has it in authority that Ngubane was brought into the country by Interpol South Africa and handed over to Interpol Eswatini through the Oshoek/Ngwenya Border Gate.
This being a highly sensitive matter because it touches on the witness’s security, his arrival in the country was closely guarded and monitored by high-ranking members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service and the elite Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU). Highly-placed sources within the immigration department and the security cluster disclosed to this publication that, when entering the country, Ngubane used a passport that had been prepared for him by the Eswatini Government.

Secret location

“Upon entry into the country, he was whisked to a secret location that will be his place of safety throughout his stay in the country,” one of the sources said. Yesterday, a battalion of police officers under OSSU were led by senior officers to conduct a clean sweep of the place of safety, where the suspect has been kept. A clean sweep is an operation which involves the detection and clearing of any dangerous elements in a defined or identified area. “The areas will be under 24-hour armed police guard as nothing must be left to chance,” said another source.

One other source, relating the process involved in bringing Ngubane into Eswatini, said the first step was getting him to consent to the extradition and necessary undertaking to be used as an accomplice witness and for the court to indemnify him if he testified to the satisfaction of the court. “The next step is to take the record to the Ministry of Justice to get the order for surrender signed by the minister. He was then handed over to Interpol South Africa, who ensured that the necessary travelling documents were in order. Interpol South Africa then handed him over to Interpol Eswatini, who in turn handed him over to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) for safe-keeping in terms of the Witness Protection Act,” related the source.
Ngubane would be indemnified by the court in accordance with Section 231 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act of 1938.

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