Cape Town - Allegations that British businessman Shrien Dewani approached a man he hardly knew - within an hour of his first visit to Cape Town - to arrange the murder of his newlywed wife are riddled with improbabilities, his defence advocate told the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Francois van Zyl, SC, was addressing Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso in an application lodged, in terms of section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act, for Dewani's discharge and acquittal.
The application comes after the State closed its case last week, after presenting the evidence of 16 witnesses.
It alleges that Dewani initiated a conspiracy to kill his wife, Swede Anni Hindocha, by approaching taxi driver Zola Tongo to find a hitman.
Van Zyl submitted that there were many improbabilities in the version presented by Tongo, who is the sole witness who directly implicated Dewani.
The first was that Dewani approached Tongo, who appeared to be a decent man, to arrange a killing on his first visit to South Africa.
A second improbability was that Tongo told him he did not get himself involved in such things, but that he would find out anyway.
Hotel receptionist Monde Mbolombo, who had worked himself up from being a porter, and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, who attended a so-called Model C school, were also happy to assist, Van Zyl added.
An additional improbability was that, on Tongo's version, Dewani only took R10 000 along with him the night of the killing even though he allegedly agreed to pay R15 000 for the hit.
“It's just a huge risk to take if Tongo is to be believed,” Van Zyl said.
He added that hotel footage showed that Dewani and his wife were affectionate with each other while they waited for Tongo to pick them up - which was at odds with someone who knew his wife was going to be killed.
Judge Traverso added it bothered her that, according to the evidence, the men robbed Dewani of an additional R4 000 he had in his pocket that night.
“If he was a co-conspirator, why do they rob him of the R4 000?” she asked.
The argument continues.
IOL