High-ranking police officers tried to have the case of Constable Minenhle Makhaye, who was found with a bank card belonging allegedly to a Malvern woman who was hijacked, struck off the roll at the Pinetown Magistrates court.
Warrant officer Sivan Naidoo made the claim at the Durban Magistrates Court on Tuesday at the formal bail application of Constable Makhaye.
The hijacking in Malvern resulted in the death of an 11-year-old Zarah Ramsamy who was run over by hijackers, in September.
Naidoo, a lead investigator in the matter is attached to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation unit in the Hawks.
While leading his evidence in chief, Naidoo revealed to the court that the reason the case was being heard at the Durban Court was because they had received information from crime intelligence that Makhaye’s family members who hold senior positions in the SAPS tempted to influence the case by having it struck off the roll at the Pinetown Magistrates court.
“Without disclosing their names, one of them is working at Nanda police station and the other is at Umbilo,” said Naidoo.
He said the number of bank cards that were found in Makhaye’s home when he was arrested was actually 272, and not 105.
Naidoo said this was established last week Wednesday when they counted each one.
He said, so far, they have established that 10 of those cards were stolen at BridgeCity Mall in KwaMashu during the 2021 July unrest.
He said they were still busy with the investigation as it took a while to process the bank cards in order to reveal their information.
Naidoo claimed that when Makhaye was arrested, they had found two bank cards: one was from Capitec and it belonged to a Mr Zulu and the other was an FNB private client card belonging to the hijacked victim.
“There were also 20 cards found that were black and white. They are normally used in hotels and load forex money for international use but we have not traced them,” he said.
Naidoo added that they were not ruling out Makhaye from the Malvern hijacking.
“Just because the suspect was not physically at the crime scene does not mean that he was not part of the gang that was there. We are still investigating,” he said.
Naidoo said Makhaye should not get bail because he was not trustworthy.
He alleged that the Commander at the Cato Manor police station where Makhaye was based told them that he stays away from work often, constantly reports that he is sick or reports for duty drunk.
Naidoo claimed that Makhaye also abused substances.
He said Makhaye was being internally investigated at his place of work and that the office that had documents regarding that investigation was burnt.
Naidoo said the three of the officers who were part of that investigation had their offices broken into and claimed that Makhaye was the suspect.
He said two State witnesses were with Makhaye when he bought alcohol using the bank card of the hijacked victim.
“Both these witnesses are terrified and they constantly distanced themselves from the hijacking. Police officers had to assure them that nothing will happen to them,” said Naidoo.
He said he feared that the State witnesses would be threatened should the court grant Makhaye bail.
Makhaye was charged for possession of suspected stolen property, theft, fraud and defeating the ends of justice.
The case will continue on October, 28.