KILL NOW, PAY LATER

The extradition case of Shrien Dewani accused of plotting to murder his wife in Cape Town 3 years ago is on appeal. LIN SAMPSON suggests that when it comes to hard evidence it's hit - and miss.

Right from the get go, the Dewani saga has been a muddle and an embarrassment to South Africa. The story is by now well known. A British couple of Indian Hindu origin, Shrien Dewani and his wife Anni, came to South Africa in 2010 to fulfil a dream of honeymooning in Cape Town.

The bare facts (and we know little more) are that their taxi was hijacked in a township, Gugulethu, while they were undertaking ‘slum tourism'.

Shrien stated that the taxi had been hijacked by 2 men who removed the taxi driver and after driving them around the township, held at gunpoint, he was pushed out of the back window. Later Anni was found dead.

The taxi driver Zola Robert Tongo admitted involvement in the crime but said on December 7, 2010 in the Western Cape High Court that Anni was murdered ‘at the instance of her husband' who had offered him money for a hit on her.

"After we arrived at the hotel, Shrien Dewani approached me alone and asked me if I knew anyone that could ‘have a client of his taken off the scene'. I understood he wanted someone, a woman killed." He had been in South Africa a little more than an hour.

Tonga was given 18 years in a hasty and eccentric plea bargain with Judge John Hlophe presiding.

Cape Town advocate Paul Hoffman says, "It does seem to have been done with unseemly haste. There are concerns about the manner in which a judge accepts plea-bargains. If the basis is false, it puts pressure on other judges."

Judge Hlophe, has himself in the past battled misconduct charges; his son recently appeared in court accused of fraud.

Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 25, was arrested 4 days after the murder and within 24 hours had made a confession implicating Xolile Mnguni. The police said the confession was ‘shockingly similar' to Tongo's story. So far the obvious implication of collaboration or in other words ‘cooking up a story' appears not to have been given consideration.

Qwabe also negotiated a plea bargain and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Mnguni who in the interim had developed a brain tumour hobbled into court, his designer jacket pulled over his head and gave a garbled account of events, most remarkable being that he had rushed to the V&A Waterfront to buy designer shoes with the proceeds of selling Anni's jewellery, a Giorgio Armani wristwatch and a white-gold diamond bracelet.

He appeared uncertain of the identity of the person he had killed and said he was not paid hit money.

The case has been dribbling on while waiting the extradition of Dewani, who is being detained in a secure hospital in Britain and continues to maintain his innocence. During this time, the media frenzy surrounding the case has become what can only be described as a national psychosis.

The sub judice law has been mostly ignored and much of the flimsy evidence in local papers appears to have arisen off a low base of xenophobia and a desire to protect the local tourist industry at any cost.

At one stage Dewani was said to be implicated in murders in both Grahamstown and Durban. Christian Botha, a private investigator engaged in the Grahamstown case, said there was absolutely no evidence to support such a claim.

Fanie Jason, the local paparazzo who infiltrated Earl Spencer's (brother to the late Princess of Wales) family life by posing as a gardener, rang newspapers (and I was one of the people he spoke to) offering a story on Dewani. Included in the package were interviews with people involved who were prepared to sell information at a price. He referred to ‘people being pro-Dewani and anti-South African'. Tongo's mother began auctioning letters sent from her son in jail, emphasising his innocence.

The matter, like everything else in South Africa, had become political.

Local papers are so biased that when his counsel Clare Montgomery QC provided evidence at the London extradition trial that he might be raped in a South African prison, it was conveniently interpreted by the press to mean that he was homosexual.

The most troubling aspect of the whole affair has been establishing a motive. Dewani said in a press statement "I searched high and low for my perfect partner...why would I want to kill her?" Dewani was not married in terms of British law and could have walked away. The prevailing rumour has been that he is gay and if his family found out, he would be cut off/disowned/disinherited and perhaps even killed. The Cape Argus reported that the South African government believed "Shrien Dewani had his wife Anni murdered because he feared that if he broke off his engagement his family would disown him."

Is this the same family who is standing by him in the face of extraordinary allegations and character slurs? We are not talking about sati believers in rural India but a wealthy professional British family living in Westbury-on-Trym.

There are also the conflicting versions of "large amount of money withdrawn" before the killing, variously cited as between R8k and R15k. Cape Town is an expensive city for tourists.

A room at the Cape Grace Hotel can cost up to R15k a night, excluding tourist tax and meals. A contract killing for a foreigner staying there is more likely to be in the hundreds and thousands of rands. The R15k said to be offered for the hit might get you a 3-day trip around the peninsula plus dinner.

It was further alleged by Dewani that he was planning a surprise helicopter trip for Anni, explaining his conversations with Tonga caught on CCTV cameras at the hotel.

According to Tongo's plea bargain the money for the killing was handed over AFTER Anni had been killed, R15k for the hit, R5k of which was for Tongo alone. It was handed over by Dewani in front of a bank of CCTV cameras at the Cape Grace Hotel with two other people in the room, lax for a hot shot killer.

Perhaps Cape Town should advertise itself as the scenic route for people wishing to get rid of spouses, something that can be arranged within an hour of arrival, and offering very favourable credit terms.

Dewani has not yet been tried in court, yet he has been tried in the media and by our leaders who without regard to the constitution have declared him to be a "monkey" and "murderer". Whether he is guilty or not, this is an abuse of human rights and makes it impossible for him to have a fair trial anywhere in the world.

Highlighted by the Milly Dowler murder case in England which spiralled into phone hacking investigation of the News of the World, questions are increasingly been asked when it comes to the reporting of court cases whether the media need to be curbed. The judge in the Dowler trial asked the Attorney General to consider proceedings against various newspapers for contempt of court. He dismissed the jury who he felt had been unfairly influenced by stories in the media.

The South African Police in their many sojourns in England have not yet got around to interviewing Shrien. Charlotte Harris, the Dewani's family solicitor confirmed that the South African Police had so far declined to interview Shrien regarding the allegations, preferring instead that he be extradited.

In a rare press statement she further said "It is of course upsetting that a number of untrue rumours are being circulated, however the Dewani family are focusing on getting Shrien better."

Anni's family, the Hindochas, on the other hand are pally with the press. Speaking from his hotel on a visit to Cape Town, her father Vinod Hindocha sounds sad but belligerent. "Why did FIFA award the World Cup to South Africa and not Britain?" he demands. His belief in the South African Justice System, which he says he thinks is more competent than that of Britain, appears to be based on the fact that FIFA awarded the World Cup to this country and not Britain, a fact he might care to reassess in light of the later FIFA corruption claims.

It is further said that the SA government pay for the Hindochas many sojourns in South Africa. Asked about this State Prosecutor Advocate Rodney de Kock said he could not recall the details but that ‘it was usual for the expenses of witnesses coming from abroad to be paid for.'

It is possible to feel compassion for Vinod Hindocha in his grief and his belief in the South African police who have shown him great favour, laying on spirit-cleansing ceremonies at the spot where his daughter was murdered. Perhaps he might have been less trustful, had he known that there is such an overwhelming number of policemen charged with criminality that it constitutes a national crisis.

In 2011 a memorial to Anni decorated with pictures and cards put up in the place where her body was discovered, was stolen. Hindocha said, "We are not angry at all. We feel that someone needed Anni's pictures more than we did."

His exaggerated goodwill towards South Africa is puzzling in light of the fact that whether Shrien was involved or not, the murder took place on South African ground for which three South Africans have already been put away.

In the first documentary on the Dewani case aired on BBC's Panorama, CCTV footage suggests the alleged role of Shrien Dewani in the murder of his wife while on honeymoon in South Africa may not be as clear cut as SA police say.

The video shows Shrien and Anni Dewani kissing hours before the murder and raises questions about the credibility of Tongo.

Another anomaly of the CCTV footage is the apparent amicable chat between Shrien and Tongo while sitting at the hotel bar with his wife next to him. He hardly looked like someone who was planning her execution.

In February last year the Sunday Telegraph wrote of new evidence that had surfaced, namely a witness who has not yet been interviewed by the police. The young female student had seen Anni Dewani's body while it was still in the taxi and said that her underwear was below her knees, her dress pulled up. The post mortem report later revealed that there were a number of dark bruises on her legs consistent with a struggle.

In another BBC Panorama documentary aired last week, a forensic scientist, raised concerns about the South African police evidence (see here).

Referring to prosecution files that had been obtained, including video confessions, CCTV footage, phone records, scientific evidence and pictures of the crime scene, Prof Jim Fraser said there was "simply a cloud of suspicion... rather than any evidence" against Mr Dewani.

There also emerged the mysterious Monde Mbolombo, a hotel clerk, who originally admitted putting Tongo in touch with the gunmen, was arrested and then set free. He can be heard in the footage saying, "This is how it is going to happen. Listen don't give them it all up front. Give them what you've got on you, so they don't come crying to you."

A large part of the prosecution case rested on what was said in calls and texts between Mr Dewani and Tongo. It was surprising, therefore, to learn that experts had not been able to retrieve the actual texts.

But most disturbing was the ballistic evidence which indicated that the bullet that killed Anni had first travelled through her hand and exited through her neck in the likely scenario of a scuffle, evidence that was corroborated by Xolile himself who said in court that ‘the gun had gone off by mistake'.

When first interviewed by police, one of the accused gunmen said Anni's death was an accident. His co-accused told police that the gun fired as Anni's handbag was grabbed. So far this has not surfaced in the public domain.

The only independent eyewitness on the night of the murder was local government auditor Simbonile Matokazi, who rang the police for Shrien and later told the BBC: "When he told me his story that night, I believed him. It sounded genuine."

Newspapers report that Anni's phone calls home revealed unhappiness. However, the UK Telegraph reported Hindocha on 16 November 2010 saying: "When I spoke to Anni she was so proud and happy. She said she had so much to tell me when she came back home again."

This matter "has come by a long road" to roughly translate an Afrikaans idiom. Hoffman believes that Dewani has little hope of a fair trial in South Africa. A review of the criminal justice system, conducted by the SA Government itself in 2008 conceded that it was in disarray. Ex Judge Deon van Zyl, Inspector of Prisons did little to shed light on prison conditions, in his evidence last year at the Dewani extradition trial in London. Hampered by data on HIVAids that was more than a decade old, he said vaguely "I can't say it's (prison conditions) worsened. I think it's improved."

If Shrien Dewani is innocent - and as far as the public knows there is no hard evidence to prove otherwise -- he has been done a grave injustice. After his arrest COSATU issued a statement: "Let us hope that the swift and efficient way in which this case has been dealt with, and the fact that it is now becoming clear that it was planned by a non-South African, will help to restore the country's reputation."

On the contrary, either way South Africa has stepped in it, either as a top destination for pay later hits or for a justice system that is falling to pieces.

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter