Durban - One of the State’s star witnesses in the Dr Bhavish Sewram murder trial broke down on the stand on Wednesday and claimed he had been threatened and abused by senior policemen to retract a statement.
Holding his head in his hands former security manager, Professor Mlungisi Sithebe, stared straight at businessman Rajiv Soni, who is accused of the murder, and pleaded for answers.
“Why did you do this to me, Mr Soni? Why?” he cried.
Sithebe lost his composure while under cross-examination by Soni’s advocate, Naren Sangham, in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
In his evidence in chief, Sithebe had told the court Soni had offered him R100 000 to kill Sewram. However, instead of going through with the murder plot, Sithebe said he went to Sewram and warned him of Soni’s intentions.
Sangham put it to Sithebe that he was lying, and in fact, Sithebe had gone to Soni and told him it was Sewram who had asked him to harm Soni.
Sangham said Soni was shocked by this, because Soni and Sewram shared a friendship.
“It was not cordial, but it was civil,” Sangham said.
Sithebe denied this, saying that as much as Soni tried to discredit him, he knew the truth.
“Soni is the one who offered me R100 000 to kill the doctor, and I will never go back on that. Soni needs God, and I will pray for him. He has harmed many families and this is very painful for me. I have no reason to lie. I was dragged into this saga by him,” Sithebe said.
He then told Judge Jacqui Henriques that he had been threatened on many occasions before his testimony in court.
“Police officers came to me, named Jones and Maistry, saying they had been sent by Soni. They were abusive to me and told me to retract my statement in this case and to make contact with Soni,” Sithebe said.
Sithebe said Colonel Jones, of the presidential anti-corruption task team, and Colonel Maistry cornered him at a local KFC, where they questioned him about Soni for more than an hour.
There they allegedly told him that the investigating officer in the case had taken R70 000 from Soni, and urged him to change his statement.
“What frightened me the most was their question to me as to whether I was prepared to die for that statement I made. I said yes, because it was the truth,” Sithebe said.
Sithebe then went to the prosecutor in the trial, Johan du Toit, and reported what had happened.
He opened a case against both Jones and Maistry for intimidation, which is still pending.
Sangham said if Jones was called to give evidence, he would deny that he or Maistry threatened Sithebe, or asked him to retract his statement.
Jones would say he did, in fact, interview Sithebe as part of an ongoing investigation as a result of a sting operation in which a state witness, warrant officer Darryl Gounder, attempted to solicit a bribe from Soni.
Sangham said Jones would say Sithebe told them he was put under pressure by the investigating officer, Yoga Naidoo, to make a false statement, and that nothing contained in the statement was true.
“Your entire testimony is a figment of your imagination engineered by the investigating officer and the investigation team,” Sangham said.
Sithebe denied this.
Sewram, 33, a father of two young daughters, was shot dead outside his surgery in Chota Motala Road in May 2013.
The State alleges Soni hired men to kill Sewram after discovering that the doctor was having an affair with his wife, Kerusha.
The triggerman, Sabelo Dlamini, pleaded guilty to shooting Sewram and is serving a 25-year sentence.
Soni’s other two co-accused, former policeman Brian Treasurer and Mfaniseni Nxumalo, were last month convicted of Sewram’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Daily News