Cape Town - The issues between Cape Town police saw officers from the Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) drive all the way to Gauteng to secure evidence in the grenade attack on the home of slain detective Charl Kinnear.
The shocking claim was made as senior officers took the stand in the Western Cape High Court in the trial against alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack and others, yesterday.
Former AGU boss, Andre Lincoln, returned to court to testify against Modack’s co-accused, Amaal Jantjies, who has challenged the admissibility of cellphone evidence.
Jantjies, who was arrested after a gang member was found outside Kinnear’s Bishop Lavis home in possession of a hand grenade, faces a string of charges along with her boyfriend Janick Adonis.
The State alleges that the couple started working with the AGU in 2019 to provide information about firearms.
In return they wanted police to assist them in securing bail for Adonis, who was being held at Malmesbury Prison.
Returning to the stand yesterday, Lincoln told the court that on November 14, 2019, he sought Adonis’s help to obtain information about the murder of Colonel Andre Kay, who was gunned down outside his home in Bishop Lavis.
He explained Adonis’s claims were so outrageous, police knew not to believe him and Jantjies showed him that she had the personal details of Kinnear, including his home address, on her phone.
Lincoln said the determined couple then sought to convince police that they had information about Modack and that was why the information on the cellphones were so important.
After her arrest, Lincoln said, he spoke to Adonis who threatened to stop working with the AGU. “He said if his wife doesn’t get bail he won’t co-operate with the AGU.”
Lincoln said after the arrest he took the cellphones and locked the devices in a safe. The next day they were handed to Captain John Van Staden.
Van Staden also took the stand and said after viewing the information on the cellphones, he knew it had vital evidence about the grenade attack.
Van Staden said he did not trust officers at the Western Cape war room so instead he drove all the way to Johannesburg to book the cellphones in with provincial police.
“At that time there were all the issues with the Rogue Unit here (in the Western Cape).”
Jantjies started testifying yesterday on the events that led up to her arrest and was seen tearing up in the witness stand as she described how police arrested her in front of her minor children.
The trial continues.
Cape Argus