Anni Hindocha [MURDERED]

A previous post noted that

Monies were paid out by Shrien Dewani certainly, but what hope have the Prosecution got of PROVING what it was for – there’s no paperwork involved in a ‘contract killing’ is there?

And that is where things are at with this trial.

The taxi driver Tongo whose name is in the frame for organizing the carjacking & murder has been giving his evidence. He has spent seven days on the stand and has been torn to shreds by the Shrien Dewani Defence lawyer Francois van Zyl.

What we have had is a white smart-arsed highly educated memory-man legal expert attorney bullying and intimidating a black semi-literate mentally challenged convicted murderer taxi driver over his recollection of despicable criminal events of four years ago. Not an edifying saga you might conclude?.The objective of van Zyl was predictably to discredit this main witness of the Prosecution, as he is the ONLY one who Dewani paid and dealt with. The attack on the taxi driver was relentless and even the Judge seemed sorry for him. He was challenged on the minutest of detail and shown to be inconsistent or forgetful (understandably?) BUT was he telling the truth about Dewani wanting Anni killed? THAT is the crux of the matter, surely?

The Police have confirmed that Dewani didn’t even tell them about the significant amount of money left in the car & stolen, nor did he ever mention his explanation for having it (that he was planning a surprise helicopter trip for his wife Anni). But that ‘proves’ nothing does it?

Dewani claims (disputed), that the day after his wife’s abduction (and of course killing), to have given greeting cards & money to police, the taxi driver, and others who had assisted him – bizarre behaviour surely by a supposedly distraught carjacked husband with a missing wife? But that ‘proves’ nothing does it?

It is difficult to see how the Prosecutor Adrian Mopp (and Shareen Riley) can make a go of this case, particularly when the Judge has thwarted his planned intention of proving ‘motive’. All evidence against Dewani is circumstantial and ‘un-provable’ so he will doubtlessly walk free without a stain on his character – despite despicably leaving his wife to her fate at the hands of armed robbers/rapists/kidnappers, being released totally unharmed, and then refusing to return to South Africa to confront the killers and respond to the accusations against himself.

[A moot question now is whether this trial will run its full course or simply be truncated after the Prosecution has finished presenting their case, without the Defence needing to proceed]

PRESIDING:  Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso

The first woman to assume a leadership position within the South African judiciary: the second woman to be appointed to the Bench in SA: the first woman to be appointed Deputy Judge President: the first woman to be called to the Cape Bar Council: the first woman to be conferred with Senior Counsel status.

Previously, a prosecutor in the magistrate courts & a State Advocate for the Attorney General.

Anni Dewani murdered in a Cape Town township