Kidnapping accused suggests victim was ‘part and parcel’ to abduction
● Kafile attacks state’s case and proclaims innocence during bail application
One of the men accused of kidnapping Riana Pretorius made a startling allegation in the city’s magistrate’s court during his formal bail application, suggesting the Gqeberha-based biokineticist had been involved in her own abduction.
In a supplementary affidavit read out by defence attorney Wayne MacGear, Xolani Kafile attacked the state’s case, steadfast that he was innocent, had been unlawfully arrested, and that there was no evidence against him.
Kafile challenged the state to provide evidence that he was linked to the March 16 kidnapping of Pretorius, 26, who was forced into the back of a white Toyota Corolla outside her place of work in Pickering Street, Newton Park, by three gun-wielding men just before 8am.
Referring to various media reports about the kidnapping, the 40-year-old father of two, from Mooiplaas, questioned the validity of claims that there was CCTV footage capturing the incident. He also asked that the investigating officer in the matter provide oral evidence to prove what facts the state was relying on to charge him.
Kafile, along with Xolisile Rawutini, 40, faces seven charges, including kidnapping, human trafficking, the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, extortion, the possession of suspected stolen property, and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
According to Kafile, who claimed he was asthmatic and had a steel plate in his leg following a car accident, said due to his medical conditions it could not have been him who allegedly ran away from the police when the Corolla was brought to a halt on Old Grahamstown Road shortly after the incident.
Kafile suggested that Pretorius, her father, Pieter, and her boyfriend at the time, Carel du Preez, may have been “part and parcel” to the kidnapping after reading media reports on Du Preez’s legal woes and that the father and daughter had refused to testify in a court-ordered inquiry into the liquidation of a company once owned by Du Preez.
He alleged that the surrounding circumstances showed the kidnapping was possibly staged, especially in light of the fact that Pretorius was released by her abductors eight days later, unharmed, and after more than R1.1m in ransom had been paid.
Kafile, who was arrested on March 28 near Amalinda in East London, and has already accused the police of assaulting him, further accused the state of malicious prosecution.
In his previous affidavit, Kafile said he was not in Gqeberha on the day of the kidnapping and had no knowledge of the incident or that he knew Rawutini before their first appearance in court together.
At the time of his arrest, Kafile was out on parole, having served four years of his eight-year sentence for robbery.
In his initial affidavit, Rawutini, a jikeleza driver from Motherwell, admitted he had driven a white Toyota Corolla to Greenacres on the morning Pretorius was kidnapped.
He said a passenger he had picked up the day before had paid him R200 to fetch an individual from Greenacres but claimed he left the area after being unable to locate the person he was meant to collect.
He, too, claimed he was assaulted by the police following his arrest.
The matter was provisionally postponed to today.