A key state witness testifying against alleged mobster boss Radovan Krejcir is suspected to have stolen the identity of a truck driver killed while the witness was in protective custody.
A TimesLIVE investigation can reveal that the state’s murder prosecution of Krejcir and three co-accused could be jeopardised by two of its main witnesses: a suspected identity fraudster from Botswana and an armed robber turned businessman.
Krejcir and Gauteng taxi bosses Siboniso Miya, Nkanyiso Mafunda and Mfaniseni Memela are on trial in the Johannesburg high court for the brazen 2013 murder of Lebanese drug dealer Sam Issa. Krejcir and Miya are both serving prison terms for other crimes.
The state’s two star witnesses — “Jacob Nare” and Lucky Mokwena — are believed to have multiple identity numbers and face several criminal charges in Gauteng courts.
Mokwena is an armed robber who was jailed for eight years but is allegedly so “untouchable” he has barely seen the inside of a prison cell, according an NPA insider.
The other star witness, testifying under the name Jacob Nare, is suspected to have assumed this identity around 2010. The real Jacob Nare — a truck driver — was murdered under suspicious circumstances a year after the fake Nare entered the state’s witness protection programme. The fake Nare is also a state witness in separate court case involving Krejcir’s three co-accused in a stokvel robbery in Soweto.
Police, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and health and home affairs department documents show that in August 2015 the real Nare was stabbed to death in Pretoria’s Soshanguve township. TimesLIVE is in possession of Nare’s death certificate and a copy of the police docket from the trial of his sentenced killer, Giyani Sam Mthombeni. Yet “Nare” has been testifying in the Issa trial since 2021 and in the stokvel robbery trial where the magistrate has raised concerns over his credibility.
A TimesLIVE investigation has unearthed the following:
- The real Jacob Nare’s death certificate, stating his cause of death as unnatural and showing his identity number as being the same as that of the state witness;
- A police profile on the state witness Nare, listing three different identity numbers for him — one matching the real Nare’s identity number;
- The state witness Nare’s criminal history shows he has been arrested on five occasions for different crimes including robbery and fraud;
- Confirmation from the department of home affairs that the state witness Nare was under investigation for identity theft;
- A photograph of the fake Nare, showing a different person from the truck driver who was killed in 2015;
- Confirmation from the NPA that the real Jacob Nare was murdered and that a man was convicted and jailed for his killing in 2016;
- Confirmation from the real Nare’s family that his identity was stolen as far back as 2010;
- An affidavit by the state witness Nare containing an identity number matching the real Nare’s;
- A magistrate is on record saying the way the state witness’s identity was obtained was dubious and suspicious;
- According to deed searches, Mokwena has two identity numbers. On his one identity number, his businesses are linked to a Pretoria residential address, which he has linked to his second identity number; and
- According to sources within the NPA, Mokwena is facing charges of assault and intimidation and was convicted of armed robbery but never served jail time.
Home affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said the Nare matter was under investigation: “We are prioritising finalising the case of Jacob Nare. We are following up on a number of claims.
“The department is also investigating why this matter has taken so long to resolve ...
“The department did receive a report that the identity of Nare was stolen.
“An investigation found that the identity was stolen through a misrepresentation by an impostor who is a Botswana national and his father. This investigation found no collusion by departmental officials.”
Gauteng South NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane would only say: “Jacob Nare is not deceased. The proceedings are held in a public court. We cannot comment about witness protection.”
A visit by TimesLIVE to the court on March 11 to attend the “public” hearing was blocked by the prosecutor without any reasons given and without any media ban. The reporter was allowed to attend a hearing a few days later, but Nare was not on the stand on that day.
‘Prosecution colluded and lied about Nare’
Issa, known in the criminal underworld as Cripple Sam or Black Sam, was shot dead in Bedfordview in 2013 when AK47-wielding gunmen opened fire on his Audi Q7 as he drove home. He was killed allegedly after a falling out with Krejcir over a R2m payment from the sale of drugs. The accused appeared in court this month.
Miya, Mafunda and Memela are also on trial for armed robbery of a stokvel in Soweto in 2013 in a case for which the Motswana pretending to be Nare is again a key state witness.
Two weeks ago, magistrate Herman Badenhorst, who had been presiding over the matter, recused himself after saying the investigating officer, a prosecutor and the state witness Nare had “colluded and lied” about his identity during his bail application in the Wynberg Regional Court.
According to audio records of the court matter, Badenhorst said the reason for his recusal, which was requested by the state, was his bias against the state, which in part stemmed from Nare’s testimony.
“The state suggested Nare was a good witness who implicated the accused, to which I responded, how? I cannot understand how the state could come to this conclusion.”
Badenhorst said it was obvious the state’s case was running into problems.
“That’s because of the confessions I was not going to allow. The prosecutor could see this for himself, which left him with the single evidence of Nare, who lied and just about defrauded the other [bail] court.
“If Nare’s evidence would never be admissible where would this lead? An acquittal. One could convincingly argue that having realised this, the state wanted to get a second bite at the cherry and have me recuse myself. When that happens, the matter is de nova [the trial must start again from the beginning].”
He said Nare had been a witness who had claimed personal security problems, “who seemed to be afraid that he will be knocked off and killed and is placed under a witness protection programme.
“[The state] got him from somewhere. It seems he is not really a South African citizen. The way he obtained his identity document is dubious and suspicious.”
Criminal law expert James Grant said that if a magistrate acknowledged they were biased in a matter, as in this case, then they had no choice but to recuse themselves.
“If they do not that would be highly questionable and grounds for review of the entire court proceedings and for the proceedings to be set aside.”
Cops first nabbed ‘Nare’ in 2014
In 2014, a man identified as Nare was whisked into the NPA’s witness protection programme and housed in London for two years. He deposed an affidavit revealing that those who allegedly killed Issa also planned to murder police officer Col Nkosana “Killer” Ximba and private forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan. The signed affidavit contains the real Nare’s identity number, he beings still alive at the time.
In 2015, the real Nare was murdered.
In 2016, the fake Nare was removed from the witness protection programme. His lawyer, Darryl Furman, who represented him at the time, failed to respond to emailed questions and referred TimesLIVE to O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan said he had been involved in keeping Nare safe and that the name and identity of the state witness had been selected at random.
“It was not that the identity was stolen per se. This is a very tricky and complex matter.
“The man who is testifying is not Jacob Nare. That is not his real identity. It never was. It was used as a name to protect his real identity. He is in the witness protection programme. He still is in the programme and is giving evidence in the Issa murder trial, the Soweto trial and a lot more cases against Krejcir and his accomplices.
“You would know that revealing the identity of someone in the programme is a criminal offence. It’s very hard to go into details of this issue.
“The name of Nare was picked out at random and used to protect him when he went undercover.”
O’Sullivan said the man with Nare’s identity was from Botswana.
“We have been to his village and verified everything about him.
“He was involved in some hanky-panky [crimes]. No one says he was not, but that does not change the reality of the situation which is that he provided enough good evidence to enable the takedown of, at the time, the country’s biggest crime syndicate.”
O’Sullivan said the man’s identity had been changed twice more.
He said he did not know how the name was selected.
“I was involved in keeping him in secure protection, including in London, after he was taken out of the state witness protection programme.
“This witness has testified in 2020 and 2021 in the Issa murder trial and in the Soweto case. He has still got other cases to testify in.”
‘This is not our brother’
A photograph of the slain Nare, provided to TimesLIVE by his family, shows a different person than the “Nare” who has testified against Krejcir and his co-accused. This person has four different first names, six surnames and three different identity numbers linked to his police profile. Records show he has four different dates of birth, with his birthplaces listed as Johannesburg and Soweto.
The state witness’s criminal record history shows he was arrested in:
- 1999 for robbery;
- 2006 for fraud;
- 2010 for car theft;
- 2013 for house burglary; and
- 2014 for contravening the Riotous Assemblies Act.
TimesLIVE has learnt from the murdered Nare’s family that his identity number and name were stolen in 2010.
Home affairs department information obtained by TimesLIVE indicates the identity number of the murdered Nare was originally issued in January 1995, when he obtained a copy of his birth certificate, and again in May 2010.
The truck driver was stabbed multiple times when he and his younger brother, Trevor, were walking from their home to buy cold drinks for a trip he was taking that day. His killers fled without taking his wallet.
The murdered Nare’s brother, April Nare, who identified his brother’s body, said: “We are hurt. Even though his killer was convicted, we don’t know why he killed our brother.”
We just want answers about how this man can be walking around with our brother’s identity and testifying in court.
— Piet Nare
Another brother, Piet Nare, said Jacob applied for an identity document after he matriculated.
“We just want answers about how this man can be walking around with our brother’s identity and testifying in court.”
Shown pictures of the man, Piet and April said he was not their brother.
“We have never seen that man before.”
The so-called Nare failed to respond to questions from TimesLIVE.
‘Thorn in the side of prosecutors’
Nare is not the only state witness whose character is questionable.
The other witness, Mokwena, an active director of 15 companies, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for an armed robbery in Germiston in 2012. He was convicted with William “King of Bling” Mbatha.
Mokwena testified in the Issa murder trial in 2019.
Despite losing his appeal he has never served a day in prison, according to a source within the NPA. His wife, Terri Fischer-Mokwena, confirmed this. She said Mokwena had never spent a day in jail and sounded surprised to hear about his conviction, asking: “Is that even possible? Who brought this to your attention?”
NPA sources say he appeared in the Randburg magistrate’s court on March 7 on charges of assault and intimidation.
“This man is a thorn in the side of prosecutors. He is untouchable. He should be finishing the sentence he was given 10 years ago, but just never went inside prison.”
According to deed searches, he owns a home in Faerie Glen in Pretoria.
Eleven of his companies are linked through his one identity number to the property, while deed searches on his other identity number show he is the owner of the Faerie Glen home.
Mokwena told TimesLIVE “no” when asked for comment and did not respond to WhatsApp messages.
Confirming they lived together in Faerie Glen, Fischer-Mokwena, while initially saying she was surprised to learn he had testified in the Issa murder trial, later said she was aware he was a witness in the case.
“Ja, ja. I have a slight idea about it.”
Confronted with the fact that Mokwena had multiple identities, one on which he used to buy the house the couple live in and another with which he registered 11 businesses and NPOs (of one of which Fischer-Mokwena is a director), she said: “No, that shouldn’t be the case. Let me speak to Lucky first.”
Despite undertaking to phone back with details, she failed to do so. Messages to her cellphone were ignored.
Approached for comment, the NPA referred questions on why Mokwena had not been arrested to the correctional services department. But its spokesperson said it was not their function to fetch people sentenced by a court.
“Sentenced people are brought to us after a warrant of detention is issued by the court, following the delivery of the court’s judgment in the case,” said correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo.
“The police are supposed to bring the sentenced person to prison.”
Police spokesperson Col Athlenda Mathe, failing to answer detailed questions on Mokwena or Nare, said: “The SAPS confirms the two are state witnesses in the matters.
“The matter [murder trial] is before court. For this reason the SAPS will not divulge the contents of this trial. In so far as protection of witnesses is concerned, these are security issues that we cannot divulge.”
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