Police methods came under the microscope in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Tuesday during the trial of Christopher Panayiotou and his two co-accused who are charged with murdering Panayiotou’s school teacher wife Jayde.
Under cross examination on Tuesday, Warrant Officer Johannes Botes claimed that at the time of the alleged triggerman Sizwezakhe Vumazonke’s arrest, he had heard his rights being read out.
Asked which language was used, Botes said that a police officer communicated with Vumazonke in isiXhosa, a language he conceded he was not proficient in.
However, further discrepancies became apparent when defence advocate Terry Price highlighted that Vumazonke’s arresting officer had noted reading out Vumazonke’s rights in English.
Botes, who is stationed at the SAPS vehicle unit, was back in the dock on the 10th day of the murder trial against Christopher Panayiotou and co-accused Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko. Vumazonke, the alleged triggerman in Jayde Panayiotou’s killing, has since died.
During May 2015, Vumazonke was arrested at Kwanobuhle at around 01:30am and from there was taken to Kabega Park Police Station and questioned for at least three hours before being taken to Despatch police station.
Price asked Botes: “When you were with him, did you ever hear of anyone warning [Vumazonke] of his constitutional rights? And don’t resort to hearsay evidence.â€
Botes replied that he had heard Captain Willie Mayi reading out Vumazonke’s rights, but in isiXhosa in which he is not proficient, at which point Price questioned as to how this was possible as Mayi had noted in a statement reading Vumazonke his rights in English.
“As a result of my lack of understanding of Xhosa, I cannot say for certain what was conveyed by Mayi to Vumazonke when he explained his rights to him,†said Botes.
The State alleges the school teacher was shot twice through the back and once through the head by Vumazonke, after being abducted outside her Stellen Glen Complex in Port Elizabeth on April 21 last year.
Advocate Peter Daubermann, who is representing Nenembe and Sibeko, made reference to an entry made in an occurrence book at the time Siyoni was charged during April.
Police records showed in court indicated that at the time Botes charged Siyoni, he signed a document that indicated the bouncer was “free from injuriesâ€, however he conceded that he had made a mistake.
“If someone reads this entry they will think that [Siyoni] was injury free, but when he was booked in at Kabega Park police station he did have an injury. What I meant by the entry was that [Siyoni] sustained no new injuries,†said Botes
At the time Siyoni was booked in to Kabega Park police station, Botes conceded that he saw Siyoni had sustained a swollen right eye.
He said that he had made an error and the charge office commander had “misunderstood†him when taking down notes.
“I read the first part [of the entry] and scrolled through the rest, I made a mistake by signing it [without reading], my role was to get the suspect detained,†he said.
The defence described Botes as being “negligentâ€, but Botes tried to explain his mistake away, saying he had been working “long hoursâ€.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
– African News Agency (ANA)
