WATCH | Docket Sgt Fannie Nkosi allegedly tampered with set for trial in June

One of the cash-in-transit case dockets that Sgt Fannie Nkosi allegedly omitted information on more charges for is set to go to trial in June.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in Limpopo confirmed to Sowetan that the case will sit before the Polokwane high court on June 8.

“This matter is one of the cases which has been brought to the Madlanga commission,” said Limpopo NPA spokesperson Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi.

On Monday, during Nkosi’s bail application at the Pretoria North magistrate’s court, it was revealed that he allegedly tampered with evidence in a cash-in-transit case that happened in Musina, Limpopo, in September 2022.

According to the investigating officer, after the incident happened whereby three suspects were arrested, police found Nkosi at Musina police station.

He then allegedly took the details of the firearms that were found in the possession of the suspects and left them with a docket to only pursue the cash-in-transit case.

The disturbing part is that some of the dockets were even closed and filed without certain evidence which was supposed to be disposed of during the filing of the docket

—  Investigating officer

After ballistics revealed that the firearms that police had found on the suspects were stolen in Roodeport and Vereeniging cases, Nkosi allegedly went to the stations and took the dockets, then closed them. Nkosi allegedly classified the dockets as undetected, meaning police were unable to find any leads to make arrests on those cases.

“[Nkosi] was duty-bound to charge the Musina suspects who were found in possession of those firearms, but instead he intentionally turned a blind eye by keeping the evidence,” read an affidavit of an investigating officer whose name has been withheld.

The investigating officer also added that fingerprints obtained from the Vereeniging case, where a police officer was hijacked and robbed of his service pistol, linked the suspect in the Musina case. Despite the evidence, Nkosi allegedly didn’t reveal this information.

The three dockets, which include the possession of a firearm, were closed, and he kept the dockets at his home. According to police, the law states that closed dockets should be kept at a storage facility of a station where they were registered.

The three suspects were only charged with cash-in-transit, which they will answer to in June during trial.

The investigating officer further said she found it disturbing that Nkosi was in possession of the dockets.

“The disturbing part is that some of the dockets were even closed and filed without certain evidence which was supposed to be disposed of during the filing of the docket,” she said.

Nkosi is the alleged middleman between suspended deputy national commissioner and Gen Shadrack Sibiya alleged criminal cartel members.

“I submit that the applicant stole these dockets from the stations where they belong. The applicant’s commander issued a statement filed as per A-17 in the docket stating that she is not aware of the dockets mentioned above.”

Nkosi has been charged with unlawful possession of explosives, three counts of failure to safeguard firearms, eight counts of failure to safeguard ammunition, defeating the administration of justice, failure to mount a stand-up safe as per the SABS 953-1/2, and theft.

Explaining why he was in possession of the dockets, Nkosi told the court that he was a member of a task team established by President Cyril Ramaphosa and national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola to investigate cash-in-transit and serious and violent crime.

Nkosi is the alleged middleman between suspended deputy national commissioner Gen Shadrack Sibiya and alleged criminal cartel members.

Evidence before the Madlanga commission of inquiry suggests the cartel specialised in cash-in-transit, contract killings and drug distribution, among other criminal acts.

Nkosi, through his lawyer advocate Siza Dlali, told the commission that he feared being poisoned in general cells and asked to be kept in the Kgosi Mampuru correctional service hospital section.

However, the presiding officer Thandi Theledi told him that she would not dictate where Nkosi should be kept and that the hospital section was for sick inmates.

Nkosi’s bail application will continue on Monday.

Sowetan