The court has ordered the police minister to ensure Lt-Col Fatima Gaffoor, head of a detective unit in Joburg, refrains from harassing a state witness she called a the k-word, and also threatened to kill his family.
The man, who was a state witness in two murders committed from 2011 – and are linked to the incarcerated Radovan Krejcir and the underworld – took Gaffoor to the high court in Johannesburg after she had been sending him a barrage of racist death threats to intimidate him to drop two complaints he had opened at Parkview police station, where Gaffoor is stationed.
The man's complaints were centred around his unhappiness with the 2017 withdrawal of the witness protection his family was put under, and the handling of two murder dockets which the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declined to prosecute. He also opened a complaint about the conduct of Gaffoor when he reported these matters at the Parkview police station.
Last week Judge Stuart James Wilson granted the applicant, who cannot be named , a final interdict against Gaffoor, adding that he was satisfied the threatening text messages were, indeed, from her .
“It had been established, prima facie, that text messages containing threats to injure and to kill the M[...]s had been issued from cell numbers associated with Lt-Col Gaffoor. One of the messages identified the sender as “Gaffoor”. In addition, at least some of the messages had been sent from Parkview, or its neighbouring suburbs. Lt-Col Gaffoor was stationed at Parkview Police Station at the time the messages were sent, and apparently still is.
“Finally, Lt-Col Gaffoor is subject to a final protection order, issued in the Randburg magistrate’s court, which restrains her from harassing the first applicant. She had apparently neither opposed the application for that order nor sought to challenge it once it was granted,” read Wilson's judgement.
One of the messages identified the sender as “Gaffoor”. In addition, at least some of the messages had been sent from Parkview, or its neighbouring suburbs. Lt-Col Gaffoor was stationed at Parkview Police Station at the time the messages were sent, and apparently still is.
— Judge Stuart James Wilson
The first threatening message the witness received in May 2020 read: “You think you better than other people. Your cases will make other people lose their job. Withdraw or you get shot. You will be traced. Son of a whore.”
This was followed by another one which simply said “Tik tok”, followed by another which read “bang”.
Wilson said the meaning of these messages was obvious. “It is that time is running out for [the applicant] to withdraw his complaints, and that if he does not, there will be a “bang” – he will be shot,” read the his judgement.
The threatening messages continued with more intensity.
In June 2020, the witness received another text which read: “I have checked and u still have not withdraw [sic] your stupid cases. Your wife will be shot first and then your child will [be] next before u r killed like a dog. And nothing u can do about it. You are just a dog”.
Wilson said the court accepted that this text came from a cell number registered under Gaffoor’s home address and ID number.
On 24 July 2020 the witness received another text from the same number reading: "ur very stupid. You think this is a joke. Dont [sic] stand on the way u are gonna die like a dog. Its either u withdraw or your wife gets killed. You f****n [sic] dog. These cases are not going anywhere. Do u want to lose your pathetic life over this.? [sic] Son of a b*tch.”
A few months later, the witness obtained a protection order against Gaffoor from the Randburg magistrate’s court, and this was followed by another text from Gaffoor: “I am sick and tired of your attitude. No court in this country is gonna stop me from getting u killed. I am gonna show u what i am made of. Ur mdssing [sic] with a wrong woman. I will wipe off your whole family in broad day light. F**k u. K****r”.
The judge said this message was important and pointed directly to Gaffoor. “The significance of this message is that it was sent soon after the protection order was granted against Lt-Col Gaffoor and contains reference to a ‘court’. It also refers to its sender as a ‘woman’,” he said .
In later messages Gaffoor made reference to the changing of management at Parkview Police Station,and that the witness will no longer enjoy further protection.
"Your station commander who protected u is now gone, ur now on your own. The new station commander is an indian like myself not a k****r like u. Ur gonna die like a dog. Or do the right thing and withdraw your stupid cases or u die like a bitch.”
Gaffoor had previously denied she sent the offensive messagesn and used her romantic relationship with a black man as defence of not being a racist but Wilson rejected this. “In any event, it seems to me that forming a close relationship someone of another race does not in itself immunise a person from racist attitudes or conduct," said Wilson.
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