Durban - One of the men accused of the murder of Charmaine Naidoo has a previous conviction for murder, the Durban Magistrate’s Court heard, although he had claimed otherwise.
Questioned on the State’s claim that Mandlenkosi Jobe had been given an eight-year sentence for the 2001 conviction, attorney Zanele Cele needed a minute to confer with him before telling the magistrate that her client said he had successfully appealed against it.
Jobe, 40, who was applying for bail, had claimed in an affidavit he had no previous convictions.
Magistrate Logan Perumal made it clear to Jobe that he was under oath and needed to be truthful.
“He needs to provide documents which will serve as proof that he was successful on his appeal to his conviction. These claims need to be substantiated,” he said.
“He needs to be truthful and honest otherwise there is a possibility of facing a further charge and a fine aside from the charges already being faced.”
Jobe, who is charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, robbery with aggravated circumstances and kidnapping, had also claimed he had five children and earned R10 000 a month - his family’s sole source of income - working as a bouncer at Kokos Bar in the Point area.
He said his brother would provide him with alternative accommodation if granted bail and that he had assets, in the form of a BMW and a Mazda.
However, State prosecutor Blackie Swart rejected his claims.
In an affidavit opposing bail submitted by the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Rajendranath Nagesar, Swart said Jobe had been convicted for murder in 2001 for which he was given an eight-year sentence.
The State alleges that Jobe was hired by Alvin “Inderesan” Maistry to put a “hit” on his wife and that he in turn hired two other men to carry out the killing.
Nagesar said in his affidavit that Jobe had arranged for the transportation of Bongani Manyathi and Sifiso Joyisa from KwaMakhutha to a nightclub where he was working. He allegedly paid their taxi fares and arranged for their accommodation in his flat in Durban after the murder.
Naidoo, 32, was murdered in February after robbers stormed her Merebank home shortly after she returned from a shop she owned with her husband in Wentworth. She was abducted, shot, stabbed and strangled before her body was dumped and car abandoned in Isipingo.
Joyisa earlier this year admitted to his role in the murder and was sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment. He testified to shooting Naidoo in her right shoulder after she was shoved into her car and taken to KwaMakhutha. When Naidoo did not die, Manyathi allegedly stabbed her several times, and then strangled her with her shoelace, Joyisa had testified.
He had said that Jobe had hired him and Manyathi to kill Naidoo and that he (Joyisa) was paid R6 000.
In May, Maistry was denied bail after evidence was led that he had requested a R1 million insurance payout on his wife two days after she was brutally killed.
Jobe’s bail application was adjourned on Wednesday to later this month and he was remanded in custody.
Daily News