By Caryn Dolley
A magistrate has been that the general manager of City Bowl Armed Response, accused of providing R15 000 to pay for the killing of his business partner, the company's director, has been planning to emigrate to England in January.
The officers also said his co-defendant, a fellow City Bowl Armed Response employee, went to a Home Affairs office to apply for a passport a week before handing the money to undercover police posing as hired killers.
Grant Smith, 44, the founder director and general manager of City Bowl Armed Response, appeared with Joanne Neethling, 28, previously the company's paramedical head, in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Monday.
Also in the courtroom was Alan Kusevitsky, the company's director and sales manager, whose murder Smith and Neethling are alleged to have been planning.
Investigating officer Mike Barkhuizen told Magistrate Vusi Mhlanga the police would oppose bail being granted to Smith and Neethling as it was believed they were flight risks.
"I've got evidence that (Smith) was planning to emigrate to England in January. Information received from his wife was that he was also planning to sell the business."
Barkhuizen said the police also had evidence that Smith had "threatened various parties and witnesses" before his arrest.
"The intended victim fears for his life."
Affidavits from witnesses and from Neethling, who was arrested five days before Smith, implicated the general manager in the murder plot.
"It's alleged he financed the intended murder of his partner in business," Barkhuizen said.
"The amount was R15 000. Evidence is that (Neethling) was the person who handed over the money and approached the persons to kill the intended victim.
"She is also regarded as a flight risk as, by her own admission, she went to a Home Affairs office a week before (being caught in the police trap) to apply for a passport."
Because of her arrest, Neethling had lost her job, but continued to support her mother and child, Barkhuizen said.
Smith's attorney, Asghar Mia, said evidence would be led later that Smith owned a 70 percent stake in City Bowl Armed Response that had not been sold.
Since Smith's arrest, the complainant, Kusevitsky, had applied to the Cape High Court to become the sole owner of the business.
Mia said there had been "no talk" of plans by his client, who was "actively involved in the security business as well as SA Police Service", to emigrate.
He said the prosecution's case was weak.
Mia and Neethling's attorney, Bern Rautenbach, asked that their clients, both of whom were on antidepressants, be kept at a police station instead of Pollsmoor Prison.
This request was refused.
Smith and Neethling are to apply for bail on Monday.