‘Property hijacker’ confident he’ll get bail

The man accused of being Johannesburg’s “most wanted property hijacker” by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba and a co-accused will find out today if their application for bail was successful.

Jonathan Constable (accused no 1), Bongani Khathide (accused 2), and Kingsley Okwebe (accused no 3) appeared in the Johannesburg Regional Court on two counts of fraud in that they deceived people by purporting to be authorised to investigate building hijackings and return them to the rightful owners.

Johnathan Constable, Bongani Kathide and Kingsley Eze during their court appearance in relation to building hijacking at the Johannesburg Magistrates Court in the CBD, 10 January 2018. Picture: Neil McCartney

Mashaba spent the day in court listening to Constable’s testimony in support of his bail application.

Khathide elected to submit an affidavit through his and Constable’s advocate, Dumisani Mabunda, while Okwebe will be making representations to the National Prosecuting Authority as to why he should not be prosecuted.

A supremely confident Constable took centre stage yesterday when he swaggered into the witness stand to testify in support of his bail application in relation to two Rosettenville properties at different addresses, each with a main house and 15 rooms to rent in the rear of the property.

Constable stated he was the deputy director in the anticorruption division of a trade union called the National Immigrants Council of South Africa (Nicsa) which, according to its near blank Facebook page, was launched in 2013 to “protect, safeguard and promote the rights and interests of foreign nationals in South Africa”.

Membership cost R500 a month which bought “direct access to legal representation” for members, according to Constable, who blamed apartheid for his initial criminal record, of which he claimed only to remember a few “incidents”.

Meanwhile, Constable has been a regular visitor to courts, having been convicted in 1984 (three times), 1987, 1988 (three times), 1990 (four times) and 1995 for theft (twice) and housebreaking.

He did jail time between 1995 and 2004 for robbery.

In 2015, the Hawks reported arresting the “serial fraudster” for fraud and corruption in Mpumalanga, for masquerading as an officer from the anticorruption unit who was responsible for investigating corruption, as well as false immigration documents.

“He allegedly demanded bribes from foreign nationals after threatening them with arrest and deportation,” Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said at the time.

Constable, from Hermanus in Cape Town, was also arrested in Musina, Limpopo – coincidentally where the Nicsa “union” is based – in 2011 after he allegedly deceived the home affairs department into issuing him a car under the pretence he was going to arrest illegal immigrants.

Prior to this, Constable was arrested for allegedly defrauding ex-soldiers in Cape Town and Pretoria of thousands of rands.

Constable was at ease with being in the box, laughing, joking and generally playing to supporters who packed the tiny courtroom.

He told the court he was approached by Okwebe, who told him a “Pastor Ike” had offered him one of two properties he could buy.

Okwebe, a Nicsa union member, approached Constable to look into the ownership of the houses. Constable said he went to the deeds office and discovered most of the paperwork required by law was absent from the folder, which led him to believe the property had been hijacked.

It was then the dispute over ownership with the actual owner began, with Constable saying he intended to go to the high court to overturn the ownership to the previous owner, for whose papers he claimed he was still waiting.

Mashaba said it was disconcerting someone’s house could be taken away so easily.

“For me, that’s the whole reason I was here the whole day,” Mashaba told The Citizen. “Do we still have a country, do we still have laws? It’s actually quite scary.”

– amandaw@citizen.co.za

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