Cape Town - The State has opposed the release of CCTV footage allegedly showing the attempted murder of a witness in the ongoing criminal case against alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield.
This was revealed in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court yesterday, as the man accused of being Stanfield’s hitman, Jose “Makop” Brandt, returned to court for the continuation of his bail hearing.
Evidence has revealed that the alleged hitman was on bail at the time of the shooting in Brooklyn. He had also managed to convince the Mitchell’s Plain Magistrate’s Court to release him to live at a fake address in Delft.
Brandt was arrested alongside Stanfield, Nicole Johnson, Johannes “Bal” Abrahams and Denver Booysen last year amid an alleged manhunt for a former employee accused of stealing over R1 million from them.
During the bail hearings, the State revealed that Brandt was the alleged gunman who opened fire on the employee at a garage in Brooklyn resulting in him becoming a State witness and going into hiding.
In his affidavit, Brandt, who lives in Beacon Valley, said he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. He claimed he was at work in Beacon Valley where he was a mechanic.
His boss, Jonathan Klaasen, also supplied an affidavit saying police had the “wrong person” and Brandt was at work at the time of the shooting.
During proceedings yesterday, State advocate Nathan Adriaanse revealed that when visited by police, Klaasen said he lied in the initial statement and was told by Brandt’s lawyer to sign the paperwork. He also revealed that Klaasen would come to court to testify.
Adriaanse highlighted a murder trial at the Mitchells Plain Regional Court, where Brandt also faces a murder and two counts of attempted murder cases for allegedly opening fire on members of the Americans gang in 2017.
In his court papers, he listed an address in Delft and was subsequently sent to live with his father named Frank at this address. But investigations revealed the address doesn’t exist and he had violated bail conditions.
Addressing the court he said: “I have grave concerns about the footage being shown in open court due to details of witnesses that will be revealed.” The case was postponed.
The magistrate said she would make a decision at a later stage and the case was postponed to May 17.
Cape Argus