Cape Town - Airport shuttle operator Zola Tongo received a mysterious prison visit from his attorney and Hawks detective Paul Hendrickse almost a year after he was sentenced to 18 years in jail for the murder of Swedish honeymooner Anni Hindocha.
This emerged on Wednesday in the Western Cape High Court where Tongo was testifying in the trial of British businessman Shrien Dewani.
Dewani is accused of orchestrating his wife Anni's murder while he and she were on honeymoon in Cape Town in November 2010.
It is Tongo's version that Dewani approached him to arrange hitmen to kill Anni and that his instructions were that the hit be made to look like a hijacking.
A month after the killing, Tongo entered into a plea bargain with the State in which he implicated Dewani as the alleged mastermind and agreed to testify against him.
During cross-examination, defence advocate Francois van Zyl SC put it to Tongo that there were rumours that he wanted to change his evidence after he had already been sentenced.
Tongo responded that he wanted nothing to do with rumours.
Van Zyl also put to him that the defence had records of visits Tongo had received while in prison, which showed that Hendrickse and attorney William da Grass had visited him in September 2011.
Tongo said that he had received several visits from them and that they wanted to find out what prison life was like.
But Van Zyl said that, as far as he knew, there was only one such visit in the prison records.
He said he would get back to the issue later in cross-examination.
Van Zyl also asked Tongo whether his parole was dependant on whether or not he testified against Dewani.
However, Tongo said that, as far as he knew, only an inmate's behaviour affected whether or not they would be released on parole.
Tongo becomes eligible to be considered for release on parole after serving nine years.
The trial continues.
IOL