There was not enough time to add any Hollywood special effects or tamper with the CCTV video footage of the 2016 jewellery heist at Fischer’s Jewellers before handing the evidence to police, a mystified state witness told the Port Elizabeth High Court on Tuesday.
Testifying in the case against four men accused of the July 29 2016 robbery, co-director of Fischer’s Jewellers at Greenacres, Bernhard Moser, said after viewing the footage in court that it was exactly the same video recording he had seen on the morning after the robbery.
“It is exactly the same [footage] as I remember it. I have viewed it 20 or 30 times already,” Moser said.
Moser was responding to questions raised by defence lawyer Zolile Ngqeza, who is representing one of the men facing a litany of charges ranging from robbery with aggravating circumstances to murder, attempted murder and kidnapping, among others.
Before the footage was shown to Moser, Ngqeza objected to the state’s request to present it to Moser, questioning the authenticity of the footage and whether it had been tampered with – either on the store’s system or before it was copied onto a DVD and handed to the police.
In the footage, which shows five different angles of the interior of Fischer’s Jewellers, three men are seen entering the store after a security guard stationed at the entrance allows them in.
The first man to enter the store is seen pointing an object – which resembles a gun – at the guard before pushing him into a corner.
Two other men enter the store, with one smashing a display cabinet with what is believed to be a hammer moments before the store’s smoke alarm is activated.
Lindokuhle January, 21, Olwethu Dlanga, 21, Awonke Yako, 20, and Lonwabo Maweni, 42, have pleaded not guilty to 12 charges.
It is alleged the group’s reign of terror started on July 16 2016 when at least two of the accused, armed with guns and an iron rod, hijacked a Chinese national in Komani.
The car, a Honda CR-V, was then used by the four men along with Xolisa Mantana and an unknown driver when arriving at the Greenacres shopping complex on July 29 2016.
It is alleged the men entered the shopping mall and robbed Fischer’s Jewellers of more than R600,000 worth of items.
The men ran out to the parking lot, only to find that their getaway driver had fled.
During the commotion that followed, the robbers attempted to hijack a red VW Golf after smashing the passenger’s window with a hammer.
The driver, Frederick George, managed to drive away.
They then proceeded to attempt to hijack a white Mitsubishi Colt bakkie and in the process shot and killed Ronald Goduka, 67.
Goduka had moments before finished his morning shopping. He died from a single gunshot to his chest.
Yako was arrested in Westview Drive near McDonald’s while January, Dlanga and Maweni fled to the Cell C parking area where they allegedly hijacked a white VW Polo.
January and Dlanga were arrested later that day in Schauderville while Maweni was arrested after DNA positively linked him to the crime.
Mantana died shortly after the incident.
After the lunch adjournment, former police photographer, videographer, fingerprint expert and field worker Pieter de Wal presented evidence related to photographs taken at the various scenes in and around the Greenacres complex.
Goduka’s family and supporters wept openly in the public gallery when images of the murdered man’s car were shown to the court.
At one stage, judge Glen Goosen asked the person operating the laptop projecting the images from the digital photo album on a large screen to exercise his sensitivity in the matter as the album contained graphic images of the deceased, the bloodstained Colt bakkie and a brown leather jacket with a single bullet hole.
The case continues.