Poaching trial corruption claims

DIRECTOR of Public Prosecutions in KZN, Advocate Moipone Noko, has broken her silence over the controversial Dumisani Gwala rhino poaching case, which has been postponed an amazing 17 times.

Gwala, with his co-accused, Aubrey Dlamini and Wiseman Makeba, faces a combined 10 charges relating to the illegal purchase and possession of rhino horn‚ and of resisting arrest.

They were arrested in December, 2014 after a sting operation in which rhino horn was bought.

At the time of their arrests, Gwala was believed to have been involved in about 80% of the illegal rhino horn trade in KZN.

In an email addressed to the Sunday Times, Adv Noko gave reasons to justify her actions for pulling state advocate Yuri Gangai off the Gwala case – amid reports he was on the verge of bringing forward an application for the recusal of Magistrate K Shandu.

In her statement, Noko argues that prosecutors do not own cases nor do they have interests in cases, and can thus be re-allocated to other cases if there are reasons.

‘There are several other experienced prosecutors in the province who are also capable of dealing with a case like the one under discussion, which will create continuity of the skills base in these matters.

‘The previous prosecutor is thus not the only one in the province who can deal with these matters for it to be a problem when this case is re-allocated to others.’

She denied there were sufficient valid grounds for the recusal of Magistrate Shandu.

She added it was not cost-effective to have a prosecutor travel from Durban to Zululand to deal with a case – ironic, since State Advocate Gangai continues to deal with matters in Zululand.

ALSO READ: Pressure on NPA to move poaching kingpin’s case to High Court

Bribery allegations

Jamie Joseph of Saving the Wild, recently revealed that an informant, who claims to be the nephew of ZW Nwenya, the original defence attorney in the Gwala case, came forward alleging that his uncle paid bribes to Magistrate Shandu to prolong the case.

Joseph provided the ZO with pictures of the sworn police affidavit made by Ngwenya’s nephew, who she calls ‘Fresh’, in February and says he was further subjected to a polygraph test in March.

In an article on her website, she revealed: ‘I had been contacted through our NGO website, savingthewild.com, and the person claimed to have information on corruption relating to the Gwala case.

‘I immediately called State Advocate Gangai, and he instructed Hawks Detective JP van Zyl Roux to accompany me to a meeting with the source.

‘Back at the Hawks Police Headquarters in Durban, a young man that I would later name ‘Fresh’ to protect his identity, began confessing that he is the nephew of Gwala’s original defence attorney, ZW Ngwenya, and explaining how he had been sucked into a life of crime while working for his uncle.

‘Over a two-year period, 2015 and 2016, he claimed he had been instructed by Ngwenya to hand over large amounts of cash bribes to many magistrates and prosecutors in Zululand.

‘I think for Detective Roux, and for myself, we were thrilled to have such a breakthrough, but it was devastating to hear the vast extent of the corruption,’ Joseph wrote.

On Tuesday, Joseph told the ZO she is challenging Noko’s decision on the application for the recusal of Magistrate Shandu.

‘If Noko does not apply her mind and give instructions to her court prosecutors to file the recusal application, I have given my attorney instructions to take her decision on review in the High Court.

‘Saving the Wild’s legal team has been instructed to proceed by November 15 if no action is taken by the KZN Director of Public Prosecutions,’ she said.

The case against Gwala and his co-accused has been set down for trial in May 2018 – nearly three and a half years after their initial arrests.

Affidavit extract

An extract from Fresh’s sworn police affidavit reads: ‘When the Gwala case was moved to Ngwelezane court my uncle handed the defence over to Miss Mpume Linda.

‘He was keeping a low profile because of a reporter, who was making life difficult for him. He was however influencing the case.

‘I was present when the magistrate presiding over the case at Ngwelezane court, Mr Shandu, arrived at my uncle’s house in Pongola. Mpume Linda was present as well.

‘They discussed the case and it was agreed that Shandu prolong the case until the state would make mistakes and he could acquit Gwala.

‘If it did not work out he would sentence Gwala to a light sentence of community service.

‘I was given R3 000 to give to Shandu as an initial payment so that Shandu would not be too hard on Mpume Linda in court.

‘Further payments would be made if the case proceeded.

‘I did as instructed, and handed the money over to Magistrate Shandu.

‘At that stage I also knew the magistrate who worked on the Gwala case, Ngcobo.

‘During 2015 I was paying Magistrate Ngcobo on other cases where my uncle was representing the accused.

‘My uncle would give me the money after which I would hand it to Ngocobo at the courts toilets at either Mtubatuba or Ingwavuma courts.

‘With every case my uncle would ask me to contact the presiding magistrate and make arrangements for the handing over of the money in return for the magistrates handing down a lenient sentence or acquitting the accused.

‘Many of the courts in Zululand are being run on fists full of cash and bottles of Hennessey.

‘These people are drunk on power.

‘These crooked justice officials are not only protecting rhino poachers and kingpins, they are protecting murderers and rapists too.’

In a telephonic conversation the ZO put forward these allegations to Ngwenya, who responded: ‘I am not involved in that matter, I dealt with it a long time ago.

‘I do not have any answer to those questions.’

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