Jayde murder accused ‘too ill to appear in court’
PRE-TRIAL motions in the Jayde Panayiotou murder case were halted yesterday when one of the suspected hitmen said he was too ill to sit through proceedings.
Advocate Hannelie Bakker said her client, Sizwezakhe Vumazonke, 30, was so ill he could barely walk and required urgent medical attention.
She did not disclose the source of his illness. Vumazonke is accused of kidnapping and killing Uitenhage teacher Jayde, 29, in April last year, allegedly at the behest of her husband, businessman Christopher, 29.
The state says Sinethemba Nemembe, 28, and Zolani Sibeko, 35, helped Vumazonke to carry out the hit.
Yesterday, all four accused appeared side by side in the Port Elizabeth High Court for the first time.
As the media took photographs of them, Panayiotou and Nemembe stared straight ahead and Vumazonke and Sibeko tried to cover their faces.
It was the first time Sibeko, the latest to be arrested after he was allegedly linked to the offence through cellphone plotting, had appeared alongside his co-accused.
State advocate Marius Stander said he had tried without success to arrange for the district surgeon to visit Vumazonke at court to save time.
Bakker said Nemembe, who shared a cell with Vumazonke, confirmed that he had been ill for about two weeks and needed assistance to walk.
Judge Glenn Goosen accordingly postponed the pre-trial proceedings – where witnesses are decided upon and concessions are made in order to speed up the trial – to September 5.
Advocate Alfonso Hattingh, standing in for advocate Terry Price SC, on behalf of Panayiotou, said they would also bring a substantive application for access to additional documentation in possession of the state.