Port Elizabeth - Sizwezakhe Vumazonke, the man accused of shooting and killing Eastern Cape schoolteacher Jayde Panayiotou has fallen ill and needs surgery.
This emerged in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday where a pre-trial conference was meant to get under way.
Vumazonke appeared alongside Jayde's husband and alleged mastermind behind the murder plot, Christopher Panayiotou, and co-accused Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko who are all implicated in the 2015 murder.
Christopher Panayiotou has been accused of masterminding the abduction and murder of his wife in April last year, allegedly because she was a “financial burden”.
The State alleged that he paid a bouncer at his Infinity night club, Luthando Siyoni, to hire hitman Vumazonke to kidnap and kill Jayde. Siyoni has since become a states witness.
The State further alleged that Nenembe helped Vumazonke to kidnap and kill Jayde at the behest of her husband. The charges against the four men include conspiracy to commit murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, kidnapping, murder and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Panayiotou faces an additional charge of obstructing the course of justice. Vumazonke's lawyer Hannelie Bakker told Judge Glenn Goosen that she could not communicate with her client during an earlier consultation on Thursday morning.
“[Nenembe] and [Vumazonke] are incarcerated in the same cell, [Nenembe] has been assisting him for the past two weeks,” said Bakker.
Bakker added that while Vumazonke had received some medical treatment at St Albans Prison it was not helping his condition. She requested that Vumazonke receive immediate medical attention and its understood that he will be sent to a Provincial Hospital to undergo surgery. The case was postponed until September 5 for the pre-trial conference.
African News Agency