Jail diet not to taste of wife-murder accused
Secrets lurked behind facade of ’loving couples’
THE Port Elizabeth businessman accused of masterminding the murder of his schoolteacher wife is to apply for bail in a bid to get out of the overcrowded prison cell where he has been living on samp and beans.
Christopher Panayiotou would make the application when he appeared in court next week, said his lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow.
“Would you like to eat samp and beans as your staple diet, with the occasional slice of bread?” asked Griebenow. “He seems to be coping, but he obviously wants to get out as soon as possible. It’s no hotel.”
He said his client was concerned about his businesses, one of which employed about 60 people.
Jayde was abducted from outside her home in Kabega Park on April 21 while waiting for a lift to school. Her body was discovered the following day.
Days later, Thando Siyoli, who worked as a doorman at her husband’s pub, was arrested.
He agreed to set up a sting operation, which netted Panayiotou.
Last Sunday, police arrested a third suspect in the case, 30-year-old Sizwezakhe Vumazonke, who was out on bail at the time after being charged in an unrelated attempted robbery.
Eastern Cape police spokeswoman Brigadier Marinda Mills yesterday said the cellphones of all three accused had been sent to police cybercrime specialists in East London to be analysed.
This week, it emerged that correctional services officials had visited Vumazonke at his KwaZakhele home just four days before Jayde’s abduction, to ensure he was adhering to his bail conditions.
The National Prosecuting Authority, police and correctional services are investigating how Vumazonke was mistakenly released from custody in January in a bail bungle that ultimately contributed to Jayde’s death.
He obviously wants to get out as soon as possible. It’s no hotel
CHRISTOPHER Panayiotou appeared in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Monday for the alleged murder of his wife, Jayde. Two days later, more than 1 350km away, in the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court, Rameez Patel, a wealthy businessman, stood in the dock for the same type of crime.
Christopher allegedly paid hit men to murder his wife. Rameez allegedly beat Fatima, the mother of his three children, so badly that every tooth in her mouth was broken. She was also shot in the face in their home in Nirvana, a Polokwane suburb.
The men, both 28, had their cases postponed this week.
Facebook campaigns for the women — Justice for Jayde Panayiotou: Bring Back Death Penalty South Africa, and Justice for Fatima — are gaining ground.
Jayde, 29, was a teacher who cared deeply for the pupils at her school. “The difference Miss Inggs (as we know her) made in my life is irreplaceable. She was the one who believed in me even when I [was] doubting myself,” Leone Ewerts wrote on the Riebeek College Girls High School website.
Fatima, 28, had three boys, the youngest barely four months old. Her best friend, Fatima Mahomed, said she was a good mother and a wonderful friend and wife. She loved animals and had a white Arabian horse.
Mahomed broke down when she spoke about the love Fatima and Rameez had for each other. His parents did not support their relationship and wanted to arrange his marriage to someone else. He was sent to the UK for a month, she said.
“But he ran away from his uncle’s place. He begged for money to buy a ticket back to South Africa. And the first home he came to was mine. I really respected this guy, but he changed,” said Mahomed, fighting back tears.
Fatima’s uncle, Farook Choonara, of Laudium in Gauteng, said he was struggling to understand why she left the children with Rameez on April 10 — the day she died.
“The nanny always travelled with her, and Fatima was never without the children, especially since she was still breast-feeding the baby. But Rameez said Fatima told the nanny to go have a holiday,” said Choonara.
He said he spoke to her last month wanting to know how she was doing. Fatima had said she was “happy”, but her “eyes and face told a different story”. She promised to visit him on April 8 but never did.
Choonara said police told him her skull was cracked, her jaw dislocated, she had been strangled and all her teeth were broken.
What alarmed him more was that one of her three sisters said she received a call from an unknown person on April 10. “He told her Fatima fell down the stairs and was badly hurt. Five minutes later she got another call to say Fatima had died.”
Choonara said there were rumours that Rameez was having an affair with a married woman and that Fatima confronted the mistress and her husband.
Similarly, Christopher allegedly had an affair with a woman working at his grocery store in Algoa Park.
Rameez was an avid sportsman and even tried cage fighting once, said an “acquaintance” from Polokwane who did not want to be named. “I don’t know him as a violent man. He was quite nice and is a prominent businessman from a very wealthy family,” said the man.
His family owns wholesale stores and Rameez and Fatima lived a comfortable life and had travelled the world. Christopher owns several businesses, including a grocer’s and a cocktail bar, in Port Elizabeth. Both men have hired top legal minds to represent them — Christopher has Alwyn Griebenow and Rameez advocate Stephanie Fourie. Both men are in custody pending bail hearings.
Five minutes later she got another call to say Fatima had died