Witness statement won’t be admitted
A DURBAN High Court judge has ruled that the witness statement of the man convicted for the 2018 murder of Kidesh Ramjettan would not be admitted into evidence in support of the State’s case on Tuesday.
Ayanda Shezi, 34, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment, was expected to testify for the State in the trial against his alleged accomplices, Menziwa Afrika Mdakane, 35, and Zakhele Dubazane, 32, of Dobsonville, Soweto.
Mdakane and Dubazane, who are also charged with the unlawful possession of a prohibited firearm and ammunition, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The trio were alleged to have been hired by people unknown to the State to kill Ramjettan. They were arrested and charged for killing Ramjettan outside his business, south of Durban in August 2018.
Ramjettan, a father of one, was in the parking lot of his Clairwood petrol station when a gunman walked up to him and shot him in the head. He died at the scene.
Shezi, from Ulundi, north of KZN, said he was hired and paid to kill Ramjettan. The father of four was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Durban Magistrate’s Court in November 2018.
Nadira Moosa, a senior State advocate, had told the court that the State would rely on the testimony of Shezi at the start of the trial last month.
However, in an about-turn, Shezi said he had been assaulted and forced into his guilty plea. He told the court that while he agreed to testify for the State, the contents of the witness statement had not come from him.
He said he was forced by the police to sign the statement which was typed in English, which he did not understand.
Shezi said he had been assaulted by police and forced to sign the statement and that the assault led to him becoming sick, and he was now a diabetic.
However, Moosa chose not to proceed further and applied for him to be declared a hostile witness.
Last Wednesday, Moosa made submissions to the court to have Shezi’s witness statement admitted as part of the evidence.
Moosa said the allegation of threats and assaults did not ring true. Shezi testified that officers Nzuzo, Panday and Khumalo had knowledge of the plea statement and they told him what to say before the magistrate.
But Moosa said when he pleaded guilty, Khumalo was in Pretoria at the time and his last interaction with Shezi was when he was detained in October, prior to his statement being made.
She said that there were also no such people as Nzuza and Panday.
Moosa told the court if Shezi’s injuries were as serious as he claimed, there would have been some visible injuries.
She said the witness statement was taken, according to the investigation officer, Detective Warrant officer Rajen Nagessar, at the magistrate’s court, on the day of his sentence. “It is improbable that the assault he described would have taken place there. He also did not take any further action to report the alleged assault to the magistrate or his legal representative, who are there to protect his rights,” said Moosa.
Moosa said on the issue of the language of the statement, Nagessar, who recorded the witness statement, testified that Shezi conversed well in English. She said this was confirmed by another officer, who had used an interpreter as a safeguard.
“Mr Shezi also presented two letters in English to the court and his application for leave to appeal was also penned in English,” said Moosa.
There was also significant corroboration to be found between Shezi’s cellphone records and that of Mdakane and Dubazane, said Moosa.
She said the records reflect the men being at certain points at the same time, including that all three men were placed in the Rossburgh area around the same time of Ramjettan’s killing, and later in the Ulundi area.
Advocate Louis Barnard, who is representing both accused, said in court last week that the statement was inadmissible and that the State could not rely on hearsay evidence.
Acting Judge Narini Hiralall said in her ruling yesterday that the court found there were factual inconsistencies.
She said while cellphone records reflected that Shezi, Mdakane and Dubazane were in the same areas, they did not necessarily mean they were together.
Hiralal said while the records also showed that Mdakane and Dubazane had proceeded to Ulundi, they had called each other, which indicated they were not together.
Hiralall said the court found Shezi’s statement unreliable and it wasn’t in the interest of justice for it to be admitted into evidence. The State closed its case.
Barnard said there was no other evidence and that both accused would be found not guilty without Shezi's evidence. Judgment is expected next week.