AKA murder accused to be extradited from eSwatini

The Ndimande brothers, who are accused of being part of a plot to assassinate rapper Kiernan ‘AKA’ Forbes and his former manager, Tebello ‘Tibz’ Motsoane, will be extradited to SA. On Friday, Siyabonga and Malusi Ndimande appeared in the Manzini District Court in eSwatini before the principal magistrate, David Khumalo, who granted SA's request for their extradition, News24 reports. They face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition. In his ruling, Khumalo said SA police investigations had linked the men to the allegations. ‘The evidence involved here also consists of interviews conducted for different people who are witnesses. The evidence (disclosed) involves cellphone records, tracker reports, video footage and photographs, among other things.’ The brothers claimed they were fleeing taxi wars ‘where family members were killed and they were facing death threats’. They also claimed that large amounts of cash found on them were the proceeds of the sale of combis. ‘They are saying they do not fear facing criminal charges in SA, but are concerned about their safety and security. They are saying part of the threats involve the police. They are saying that police had taken sides with one of the rival groups in the taxi wars.’ However, Khumalo said: ‘The affidavits deposed by the heads of various units in the police tend to show this violence and threats are not entrenched in the institution.’ ‘All police heads, including the head of Correctional Services, have assured that they will be given maximum safety and security.’ ‘As an additional safety measure, we order the SAHRC (SA Human Rights Commission), to ensure respect, protection and observance of the rights of the respondents as they are extradited to SA, including when they are in correctional services.'

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Meanwhile, the SA Justice Department is going ahead with extradition applications for the Gupta brothers and ‘prophet’ Shepherd Bushiri, Minister Thembi Simelane said on Friday. Simelane said the department is committed to fulfilling its treaty and extradition obligations to ensure justice is served. Simelane said they were engaging the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and Extradition Treaty on requests to extradite the Gupta brothers from the UAE and Bushiri and his wife from Malawi. ‘These cases have faced several challenges but we remain steadfast in our pursuit of accountability. Our teams are working through diplomatic and legal channels to bring these matters to a resolution,’ she said. As for the Guptas, Justice Department DG, Advocate Doc Mashabane, said after their recent engagements with the UAE's justice system and law enforcement was the extradition application had to be resubmitted. Mashabane and former Justice Minister Ronald Lamola travelled to the UAE just before the 29 May general elections. ‘The view of the UAE, as the matter stands now, is to resubmit the extradition request and that has been their view since April last year when their court took a decision that our application is not in order. We don't have a new application because we don't have feedback from the UAE on what was wrong with our application, such as we attached a counsel warrant of arrest and there was also a valid warrant of arrest attached.’ 

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