By Alex Eliseev and Karyn Maughan
A South African business giant is fighting allegations that he interfered with a state witness to prevent his son facing trial on charges of armed robbery.
Now KPMG chairman and BEE stalwart Raboijane Kgosana's phone call to company employee Brian von Holdt could damage his 21-year-old son's bid to get bail.
Kgosana's eldest son, Obakeng, and four alleged accomplices face charges of armed robbery, assault, attempted murder and hijacking in connection with two robberies in June.
Von Holdt and his family were robbed at gunpoint in their Bedfordview home on June 9, and identified Obakeng and two others in a police identity parade.
On August 24, at 6.30pm, Kgosana phoned Von Holdt.
"He (Kgosana) sounded very nervous on the phone and his speech was very shaky," Von Holdt said in a statement handed to court on Tuesday. "He phoned me to try and obtain what detail I knew of the armed robbery that his son had been accused of He said his son had been convinced to join a group in the hope of getting money from his father in the event of them getting caught."
Von Holdt claimed Kgosana maintained his son's innocence and alleged that the police had tried to extort R40 000 from him.
On Tuesday night, The Star received a copy of an affidavit that Kgosana has prepared to hand in to court.
In it, he claims he had no idea that Von Holdt was a witness in the investigation when he called him. He said he had since apologised.
Kgosana said he told Von Holdt that, although police had informed his wife that she must pay R40 000 for the release of his bakkie, which has been linked to both cases, his lawyers had arranged for it to be released without any payment.
According to Kgosana, he called Von Holdt after news of his son's arrest was leaked to a radio station and one of the senior partners at his firm told him that Von Holdt was responsible for the leak.
On Tuesday, Obakeng, together with Shakile Ngubane, 21, Ronny Marwane, 20, Willie Kroet, 27, and Glen Modise, 23, began their bail application at the Randburg Magistrate's Court.
The suspects have denied any involvement in the robberies. Four are accused of robbing a Strijdom Park shop. Three of the men are accused of robbing Von Holdt's home. Raboijane Kgosana's bakkie, allegedly driven by his son, has been linked to both cases, and police believe the five operated as a gang.
Investigating officer Inspector Vivian Dlamini told the court that all five accused had been linked to the crimes and asked that they be denied bail.
Obakeng admitted that Marwane was his friend and confirmed that he was present at the scene of the Randburg robbery on June 23. But, he said, he knew nothing about the attack and was only trying to buy a secondhand window for his father's bakkie.
He claimed that a new driver's window would have cost R800, but he had had only R500 of his monthly R1 000 pocket money left and had asked Marwane to help him out. He then drove Marwane and his friends to the location.
Obakeng said he had spent the day of the Von Holdt robbery playing golf at Vodaworld and was driving his mother's Mercedes-Benz.
The case has been postponed to next Thursday.
As the chairperson of one of the so-called "big four" auditing companies, and head of a department that served clients like Telkom, the Post Office and the SABC, Kgosana comfortably clears an annual seven-figure salary. The 48-year-old chartered accountant's rise from cattle herder to one of the most powerful men in the finance industry has won him the respect and friendship of a number of high-profile business people and politicians, including Cyril Ramaphosa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and presidential adviser Wiseman Nkuhlu.
Kgosana is the nephew of Pan Africanist Congress leader Phillip Kgosana, who was a 21-year-old student when he led the 1960 anti-pass march in Cape Town.