How cellphone trap led police to final Jayde suspect
ZOLANI Sibeko thought he had won a prize, but instead of receiving the free gift promised to him by the friendly cellphone network agent on the other side of the call, he walked into a police trap.
Sibeko, 35, charged as a co-conspirator, was the final suspect to be nabbed, 15 months after Jayde Panayiotou’s kidnapping and murder.
In the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday, the Organised Crime Unit’s Warrant Officer Shane Bosch testified that he had been asked to try and track Sibeko down after his cellphone number became of interest to officers probing the Uitenhage school teacher’s murder.
Bosch said the number was supplied to him by investigating officer Captain Kanna Swanepoel.
“[He] asked me to find out who was using a number of interest to them,” Bosch told state advocate Marius Stander.
“I phoned the number and identified myself as a person from a certain cellphone network.
“I told him his number had won in a lucky draw and he needed to answer a simple question to win a R500 voucher.”
Bosch said after the person answered the question correctly, he asked him to identify himself and supply his address.
“He said his name was Zolani Sibeko and gave [an address] in Greenbushes.”
Bosch said he then went with Swanepoel to the Romulus Street home, where Sibeko’s mother answered the door. Another elderly woman was also present.
The policemen were apparently informed that Sibeko was not home.
“We identified ourselves and [his mother] granted us permission to search the premises. I found Mr Sibeko standing in the en suite of the main bedroom.”
Bosch said Sibeko refused to tell them where his cellphone was and when Swanepoel dialled the number, the phone lit up in the old lady’s gown pocket.
Sibeko was arrested and the phone was sealed in an evidence bag.
The state’s data analyst, Thereza Botha, testified last week that the same number had been traced to the vicinity of Jayde and Christopher Panayiotou’s Kabega Park residence just days before the murder.
It was in communication during that period with deceased suspected triggerman Sizwezakhe Vumazonke.
It is alleged that Panayiotou, 30, hired hitmen to kidnap and kill Jayde, 29, on April 21 2015. All have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Swanepoel, the prosecution’s final witness, is expected to take the stand today.