Dewani's 'mystery woman'

Zola Tongo, the tour guide who the prosecution believes could link Shrien Dewani to the murder of his wife, Anni, has deviated from his plea statement by introducing a mystery woman into the narrative.

Testifying in the Cape Town High Court , Tongo said Dewani had asked him to kill a businesswoman - and had introduced him to her.

Tongo was convicted, after entering into a plea bargain, of orchestrating Anni's murder. In his 2010 statement, he said Dewani wanted to kill his wife.

But yesterday he claimed that he saw Dewani with two women.

Vinod Hindocha, father of Anni, was shocked by this revelation.

Tongo said Dewani asked him to organise the murder of a female business partner.

He said the woman - whom he said he first saw with Dewani at Cape Town International Airport, on Friday, November 12 2010 - was not the woman who was killed in the allegedly feigned hijacking.

Said Tongo: "The one from Friday who was introduced to me was casually dressed and she looked ordinary but the other one was beautiful and nicely dressed."

Tongo was calm and testified with confidence.

He said he hired Xolile Mngeni, who recently died in prison of a brain tumour, and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, to make the hit.

Anni was found dead in the back of Tongo's abandoned car in Khayelitsha on November 14 2010.

Qwabe was sentenced to 25 years in prison; Tongo is serving an 18-year term.

Criminal law expert William Booth said the success or failure of the state's case will hinge on Tongo's testimony.

Said Booth: "It is still too early to say that the prosecution case is crumbling but Tongo's evidence is critical to it.

"If it doesn't add up, we might as well forget everything."

Before Tongo took the stand Judge Jeanette Traverso ruled that the testimony of male prostitute Leopold Leisser was inadmissible.

Dewani has admitted that he hired Leisser for sadomasochistic sex sessions.

But Traverso allowed Leisser to testify about other issues peripheral to the case, including the fact that he sold the story of his involvement with Dewani to the media.