Johannesburg - A convicted murderer, who is linked to several cases and has alleged ties to criminal kingpin Radovan Krejcir, has escaped from an Ekurhuleni court.
Although Thabiso Ledwaba appeared in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s court on Monday on a separate matter, he was due to be sentenced on Thursday for the kidnapping and murder of German supercar specialist, Uwe Gemballa.
Ledwaba and his co-accused Thabo Mohapi and Galland Holworthy were found guilty of the crimes in the high court sitting in Palm Ridge in November.
News24 reported that Ledwaba managed to get hold of a firearm and pointed it at an officer in the holding cell section of the court a few metres below the courts.
He had briefly appeared in court on charges of murder, attempted murder, robbery, housebreaking and theft along with his two co-accused, Modiko Dipale and Percy Segoe, in a separate case to the Gemballa murder.
“I saw Ledwaba pointing a gun at our colonel. He was still shackled. I saw (the colonel) handing his firearm to him because he was pointing a firearm at (him) and taking the keys from the table,” an officer was quoted as telling Judge Cassim Moosa.
Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan, who helped investigate the Uwe Gemballa murder, said Ledwaba was due in the Palm Ridge court on Thursday for the murder of Gemballa.
“This is a tragic indictment of the criminal justice system, which now seems to be completely broken and in need of fixing.
“There’s only one way to fix it, and that is to start firing the people at the top.”
Gemballa flew to South Africa in February 2010, allegedly to negotiate opening a new branch of his business here.
The funding for the business was allegedly set to come from now-convicted criminal Radovan Krejcir and slain Teazers owner Lolly Jackson, who was gunned down in Joburg in 2010.
During the trio’s lengthy trial, the court heard that the men kidnapped Gemballa when he landed at OR Tambo International Airport.
They then held him at an Edenvale house for days where they duct-taped his head and sat on his chest until he suffocated.
His body was wrapped in a black plastic sheet and buried in a shallow grave, where it was found several months later.
The men also stole a laptop, iPod, wallet and clothing from Gemballa.
The slain businessman’s widow Christiane was due to read an affidavit to the court on Thursday during the men’s sentencing procedures.
The document, which The Star has seen, details how she and her young son had been emotionally and financially affected since Gemballa’s murder.
“The planned assassination of my husband and father of my son has most brutally ruined our lives,” a section of the affidavit reads.
But now, just days before Ledwaba and the two others were due to be sentenced, he managed to escape from custody and is at large.
The Star