Polkwane – A special task team has been assembled to follow up on state witnesses in the case against Limpopo businessman Rameez Patel who have gone missing.
The prosecution authority told Polokwane Magistrate’s Court on Monday that the special task team had been established after it emerged that two key witnesses had opted out of Witness Protection Program and apparently skipped the country.
Investigators have now been assigned to trace the witnesses. Both witnesses were apparently employed by Patel, one as domestic worker and the other as general worker at Patel’s business.
State prosecutor Mashudu Mudau told court that the state was ready to proceed but it was hesitant to do so and leave out the evidence of the missing witnesses.
He said it would be in the interest of justice for the two witness’s evidence to be procured, and requested that the court grant a further postponement while efforts to trace the witnesses were underway.
Mudau said that before the witnesses threatened to leave the Witness Protection programme, they had complained of not being happy with the conditions they were subjected to in the programme.
The witnesses were offered a salary and as part of the stipulated conditions were supposed to use it for the purposes of their food and accommodation needs, a condition Mudau told the court did not please them.
Apparently they told investigators that they had been offered free meals and accommodation.
But defense lawyer, Tumi Mokoena, lambasted the latest developments, saying it was unacceptable that witnesses could “escape under police eye”.
He vehemently objected to the state’s application for postponement and wanted the case to be temporarily withdrawn.
Mokoena said that he believed that his client Patel would be prejudiced if the case was granted a further postponement.
Patel was arrested in April after he was linked to the murder of his wife, Fatima Patel, who was found murdered at the couple’s house in Nirvana in Polokwane.
Patel who is out on R250 000 bail is also facing another case of murder relating to the death of Tony Adams case in 2013.
Judge France Kgomo was expected to deliver judgment on the state’s application later on Monday.
African News Agency
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