Court in short
A witness for the defence testified that his statement went missing from the state case against fraud accused and sacked head of the Hawks in Mpumalanga, Lt Gen Simon Mapyane
• Maria Ferreira appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court on June 13. She allegedly tried to pay someone to murder her husband, Carlos Ferreira (55). The case was postponed until July 14. She was arrested on March 19 after she met an undercover policeman who was to assist her in killing her husband. She apparently planned to have him murdered near Malalane when they returned to Mozambique. Maria had given the agent R500 for petrol, but intended to pay him R20 000 for the hit.
• On Friday June 9 a witness for the defence testified that his statement went missing from the state case against fraud accused and sacked head of the Hawks in Mpumalanga, Lt Gen Simon Mapyane.
Mapyane stands accused of allegedly claiming travel expenses for official trips he never undertook. He was arrested in May 2014 and released on bail of R1 000. The crux of the case against him is based on the cellphone bills – one of his official phones.
According to the charge sheet, Mapyane requested remuneration to the amount of R2 805,84 for travel expenses pertaining to a court case he had to attend in Pretoria on August 1, 2 and 3, 2010.
He allegedly filed more claims for work-related travels between Mbombela and Pretoria, amounting to R5 551,06, on September 1 and 2, 2010. It was further alleged that Mapyane claimed R2 391,90 after travelling to Ogies on April 25, 2012. He was also charged with claiming R2 805,85 in travel expenses for a work trip on September 9, 2010.
According to the witness WO Richard Mandla Mphephethte, he had given the then provincial police commissioner Lt Gen Thulani Ntobela his statement. He testified that he had gone to Ogies on April 25, 2012 and Mapyane had not met with the unit and travelled in the police bus on that day. “We only saw the general when we were in Ogies.”
He said Ntobela on hearing his testimony had called him a liar. “I told him to go to the Vivo filling station on the N4 and get the CCTV footage to show who was there, but this did not happen and the statement I gave them did not appear in the state case docket.”
The trial was postponed until November 22.
