Call for discharge of Jayde accused

A LAWYER for two of the men accused of conspiring to kill Jayde Panayiotou believes there is not enough evidence before court to convict his clients beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sinethemba Nemembe and Zolani Sibeko were linked to the Uitenhage teacher’s kidnapping and murder through cellphone evidence, something defence attorney Peter Daubermann said is not reliable enough to see the men possibly sent to prison for life.

Yesterday, Daubermann brought an application in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act for Nemembe and Sibeko’s early discharge due to a weak state case.

He told Judge Dayalin Chetty that his clients’ names were barely mentioned in the marathon murder trial and that he had spent most of the time “sitting here twiddling my thumbs”.

It is alleged that Christopher Panayiotou, 30, used a middleman to hire Nemembe and the now deceased Sizwezakhe Vumazonke to kidnap and kill his wife on April 21 2015.

Sibeko was charged as a co-conspirator.

But Daubermann told the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday, there was no credible evidence on record to prove this theory beyond a reasonable doubt.

Focusing first on Nemembe, Daubermann said save for the evidence that Nemembe and Vumazonke communicated from time to time, the details of those conversations were not before court and there was therefore no evidence that they were plotting a murder.

“If this is the case, then everyone who phoned Vumazonke should be arrested,” he said.

“That’s the end of the conspiracy charge. There is nothing to support that allegation.”

He said on the state’s own case, Sibeko was not at the scene of Jayde’s kidnapping in Kabega Park or her murder in an open field in KwaNobuhle near Uitenhage.

Daubermann said the majority of the cellphone evidence was based on the location of MTN towers, yet only one witness was called to testify about their exact locations.

“The state is saying Nemembe was at the scene of the murder because his cellphone connected to a tower close to where [Jayde’s] body was found,” he said.

“But the range of a tower in the rural areas is 30km,” meaning Nemembe could have been up to 30km away from where Jayde, 29, was shot dead.

State advocate Marius Stander said he would oppose the application for discharge.