The case of a KwaZulu-Natal businesswoman who was kidnapped in May 2019 and held captive for almost six months took a turn on Monday when a defence lawyer speculated “someone stood to gain by the crime”.
Witness Gen Gopal Govender, who led a team responsible for rescuing Sandra Munsamy, the CFO of the Xmoor Transport family business empire after she was held captive for 162 days from a house in Witbank in Mpumalanga, was in the witness box in the Durban High Court on Monday.
Govender was giving evidence in the kidnapping trial of Lucas John Ndlovu, Dumisani Radebe, Jose Tembe and Arthur Mondlane. They also face charges of extortion, robbery with aggravated circumstances and entering the country without a valid permit.
The policeman, who was being cross-examined by Tembe’s advocate, Joe Wolmarans, dismissed suggestions “someone” stood to benefit from her kidnapping or her demise.
Wolmarans, however, told the court there was information to that effect from an independent source.
“Did your investigation also include there was a substantial policy on the victim in the event that she gets kidnapped or meets her demise?” said Wolmarans.
Govender said nothing was found linking the victim and her identity numbers to any policy during their investigation.
Wolmarans questioned Govender whether he had seen this information, and if so why this was not included in the investigation report.
“We worked as a team and assigned different duties to this case. Nothing of that sort came out during the case management engagements. There are court dockets and operational files for the purposes of evidential information,” said Govender.
Tembe and Mondlane were arrested on November 7 2019 in the parking lot of a mall in Honeydew in the West Rand after leaving gym. Their arrest led to police storming the Mpumalanga house where they arrested Ndlovu and Radebe.
An investigation by the Sunday Times revealed that Tembe and Mondlane were the kingpins behind two of South Africa's biggest kidnapping gangs. Another two people, known as Amelka and Chris and who were known to Mondlane, were also involved in the planning.
Govender said Amelka was a notorious criminal who was wanted for a string of offences in South Africa and Mozambique, and enjoyed an unrivalled status for being able to cross borders (illegally).
“This is a strategy which normally gets used and it was purposefully done to evade arrest and manipulate the tracking system. This is also because South African cellphone networks are unable to be tracked in neighbouring countries,” said Govender.
Wolmarans asked Govender why police had not brought interpreters fluent in Portuguese or Shangaan when the pair was arrested in Honeydew.
Govender said this was not necessary as some policemen on the team were conversant in Portuguese.
During the hearing, Wolmarans asked if Govender still kept his notes for the investigations. It emerged the notebooks were lost between 2021 and 2023 when he left the Eastern Cape.
