Cape Town - A man accused of killing honeymooner Anni Dewani was seen with a pistol the day of her murder, the Western Cape High Court heard on Monday.
A 26-year-old State witness said he saw his good friend Xolile Mngeni on November 13, 2010, with two men outside a house in Sidima Crescent in Khayelitsha.
He approached the parked silver VW Sharan minibus Mngeni was sitting in, but the accused gestured to him to stop, turn around and wait for him inside a house, which belonged to a hairdresser friend of theirs.
The witness could not be identified as part of a court order to protect him and his family. The public gallery was cleared for his testimony and only reporters were allowed to sit in.
Mngeni has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Anni Dewani was shot dead in an apparent hijacking in Gugulethu while on honeymoon with her husband Shrien.
The witness said Mngeni had been sitting in the middle of the back seat and an unknown man was in the driver's seat. A man he knew as “Spra”, identified as Mziwamadoda Qwabe by others, was in the front passenger seat.
Qwabe is serving a 25-year jail term for his part in the murder.
“He (Mngeni) came out the car (after 30 minutes to an hour), went into the hokkie (hair-cutting enclosure) and was in possession of a plastic bag, a carrier bag white in colour,” the witness said.
“He opened this plastic (bag) and took out a gun... I saw the gun... He took it out, looked at it, put it back in the bag and wrapped it again.”
He identified the weapon by a star that had been scratched onto it, near the trigger. He pointed out the gun before the court as the one he saw Mngeni with.
The two then walked to Mngeni's house, where he put the wrapped gun under his mattress. The witness escorted him to a barber shop, where Mngeni was to have his hair cut. Before saying goodbye to Mngeni, he asked about what he had seen.
“I asked him, but he did not give me an answer regarding those people (he was with in the car) and also the firearm,” the witness said.
He met with Mngeni in the street he lived in around noon the following day.
The accused was talking to a neighbour and holding a man's watch, described as a Prada watch with a rubber strap and a lot of numbers, “like a barcode” at the back.
“I told him to give me the watch, to sell the watch to me, but he didn't want to so I returned it to him. After that he said he's going to wash himself... when he returned he was in possession of a lady's watch...he was selling the watch for R400.”
The small watch was apparently a Georgio Armani and had gold in the middle of the strap, with silver on either side.
Mngeni was unsuccessful in selling the watch to the neighbours, so the men walked to a nearby cellphone services stand, where they met two other men.
Mngeni then took out a camera and two phones, a Blackberry and Nokia, in front of them. The camera was black or silver with a touchscreen. He pointed out the phone as looking very similar to one of the exhibits before court.
The witness turned the camera on and saw a photo of a smartly-dressed couple, the man in a suit and a woman in what looked to be a wedding dress. He saw numerous other photos of the couple.
“He (Mngeni) requested that I delete the photos.”
The photos were, however, deleted by one of the men, Fohli.
The witness would be cross-examined on Tuesday. - Sapa