Jaca yet to face fraud charges

Suspended Metro Police Chief Ndumiso Jaca. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/Independent Media

Suspended Metro Police Chief Ndumiso Jaca. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/Independent Media

Published Mar 25, 2017

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Pretoria  - Former Tshwane Metro Police Department deputy chief Ndumiso Jaca on Friday succeeded in having some of the charges against him dismissed in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.

Jaca, along with his defence attorney Andre Steenkamp, had filed an application to have all his charges dismissed. They included multiple charges of fraud, driving a vehicle with false number plates and illegal use of blue lights.

He is accused of using illegal number plates - BALTY GP - while driving his BMW Z4 and on a Harley Davidson motorbike.

Magistrate Graham Travers said the charges relating to falsifying the number plates as well as the blue lights were dismissed.

However, Jaca needs to defend the fraud charges related to several allegations that he contravened the Road Traffic Act. Travers said there was enough prima facie evidence that Jaca needed to answer to.

Travers, in the judgment, briefly went through the testimony of each of the State witnesses.

All of them, including some of his former colleagues at the department, testified to having seen Jaca driving a black BMW Z4 with the number plates in question.

Some of the witnesses also testified that they checked the eNatis database and found that Jaca had not registered the number plates.

Travers also said Steenkamp poked holes in their credibility as witnesses due to their inconsistent statements given to police and during their testimony.

One witness who was a “bone of contention” was Phuti Chauke, a metro police senior superintendent, who testified that he saw Jaca driving the Z4 with the unregistered number plates as late as 2010 and even went as far as saying he was a passenger in the car in 2010.

“The defence vehemently denied this, saying the car was only registered in September 2011,” Travers said.

Another witness, identified only as D Moodley, who was also a member of the metro police at the time, said he testified under duress and preferred not to be involved in the case.

Tavers sad Moodley did not want to submit a statement to police, but eventually agreed after he said he had been threatened. He also initially refused to testify under oath before changing his mind.

Moodley said he and another officer were talking at the departmentheadquarters when they saw the Z4 driving into the parking lot. He said he did not take notice of the number plates, but the man he was talking to noted that the car was fitted with blue lights and did not have a licence disc.

Moodley said that on another occasion he saw Jaca driving a black and yellow Harley Davidson and on another occasion a white Volkswagen Amarok with a trailer towing the motorbike which was allegedly fitted with the BALTY GP number plates.

Steenkamp made an application to have Moodley’s testimony scrapped from the record, but the magistrate dismissed the application. He instead granted an application to have one picture which was submitted for evidence scrapped.

The matter was postponed to June 5.

Pretoria News

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