Soldier accused of top cop murder
2013-07-30 16:13
Pretoria - A member of the SA National
Defence Force (SANDF) is one of four men accused of the premeditated murder of
former Johannesburg cluster commander Major General Tirhani Maswanganyi, the
Pretoria North District Court heard on Tuesday.
Ndaedzo Isaac Vele, 29, Tshepo Mosai, 30,
Roger Godfrey Moseki, 33, and Nditsheni Daniel Nefolovhodwe, 32, appeared
briefly in court before their bail applications were postponed to Thursday.
Maswanganyi was found dead on 17 June in a
field near Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, with his hands and feet bound.
This followed a search, launched after a
police patrol found his Isuzu bakkie abandoned next to the R101.
A police uniform and police identification
card were in the vehicle.
Prosecutor Lucas Moseki said the State
opposed bail for all four accused.
He said the charges they faced were murder,
premeditated murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, and driving a
vehicle without the owner's consent.
Vele said in an affidavit read out in court
that he was a soldier holding the rank of private. He feared that if he was
held in custody for a long time he could be suspended from his job.
Vele said his fiancé was pregnant with his
first child and was expected to give birth in November.
He also admitted that he had a prior
conviction of rape, for which he received a suspended sentence.
Day of the
murder
On the day of the murder he had picked up his
commander from OR Tambo International Airport and then ran errands for her.
Vele's commander wrote a statement, which was
read out in court, confirming that he had fetched her from the airport that
day.
The commander's statement had not been
officially commissioned; however, which meant it could not immediately be
submitted as evidence.
Magistrate Ilne Stander said because the
statement was not commissioned, it was "not worth the paper it is written
on".
Stander said the bail application for Vele's
co-accused could not proceed until the commander's statement had been properly
verified.
- SAPA
