It took Sowetan less than three hours to locate the house of a state witness with crucial evidence in the murder trial of Mthokozisi Ntumba after law enforcement agencies failed to find him for four months despite having unlimited tracing resources.
Naresh Suredin, a technician, was expected to be one of the key witnesses that would have given testimony about the CCTV footage which would have shed more light and possibly identify the officers behind the shooting of Ntumba outside MyClinic HealthCare in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, in March 2021. Ntumba was shot during a student protest against historic debt.
On Tuesday, the Johannesburg high court acquitted the officers — Tshepiso Kekana, 27, Cidraas Motseothatha, 43, Madimetja Legodi, 37, and Victor Mohammed, 51, — on charges of murder and three counts of attempted murder of TVET college students. The court said none of the state witnesses could identify the officers as the people who killed Ntumba.
Also this week, a source close to the case said Suredin could not be found on his phone and the address that he gave and that through the SA Revenue Services, they discovered that he has six addresses in Lenasia but could still not locate him.
However, yesterday it cost Sowetan little effort to meet and speak to three people in Lenasia to finally find Suredin's house. This was after Sowetan used one address which was on the state witness list under Suredin's name to trace him.
Sowetan quickly established that the street name on the list does not exist in the area and then used only the house number to narrow its search down. A house with the same number was found on a different street. A neighbour confirmed that the people who live in the light-brown house are technicians who specialise in surveillance and access control space.
A car was then seen coming out of the house and its occupant, who later turned out to be Suredin's son, confirmed who Suredin was. But he said he was not in the house.
Sowetan went to the house and met with Suredin's relatives including his wife. She said her husband never wanted to testify in the trial. “All he did was to download the footage and gave it to police,” said the wife.
Suredin then called his wife and told Sowetan: “I was never subpoenaed by any court to come and testify. This matter is bigger than you think. The video shows what happened on that day and police negligence.”
In another call made to him in the afternoon, Suredin said: “I received one call from the Ipid (Independent Police Investigative Directorate) some time last year. They told me that I must be available to testify in court. I had no problem with that. I was ready to testify in the case. But I was never called or given a date of when I should come and testify.”
Sowetan also established that Suredin has been running his company for 15 years.
Suredin said the address that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had on its list was not the address he gave them.
When asked about Suredin early this week, NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said꞉ “The NPA respects the courts decision and justice has prevailed. We will study the judgment to determine whether or not it can be taken on appeal. This is the only response I can give. The rest, no comment.’’
Ipid spokesperson Lizzy Suping said they will only comment once they are done studying the judgment.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.