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#PrellerSquareShooting: SAPS brigadier testifies

───   LUCKY NKUYANE 14:34 Wed, 14 Apr 2021

#PrellerSquareShooting: SAPS brigadier testifies | News Article
PHOTO: Lucky Nkuyane

Twists and turns of events are currently being scrutinised in the much-anticipated testimony of SAPS in the trial of slain Bloemfontein businessman Louis Siemens.

The head of the provincial Organised Crime Investigation Unit, Brigadier Tsokolo Phosholi, is currently on the stand in the Free State High Court, relaying chains of events allegedly linking one police official, a former police captain, and Stanley Bakili, who are charged with Siemens' murder.

Phosholi so far has told the court about apparent damning information allegedly given by former Bayswater police captain, Moeketsi Lesia, to his team of investigators about his junior detective, Molebatsi Mogoera, at the time. 

He says Lesia had informed Sergeant Buyisile Jona, amongst others, that Mogoera was a corrupt police official and that he suspected that Mogoera had stolen a domestic violence docket opened against Bakili. 

However, Lesia's legal representative, Advocate Mosiao Mazibuko, put it to Phosholi that he could not have taken what Lesia have said to him as facts, because the latter had not given a supporting statement under oath.

Phosholi says at one point he had been told that Bakili's ex-girlfriend - in the domestic abuse matter - had requested that Mogoera be removed from the case because she was under the impression that Bakili would never see a day in court due to his relations with Mogoera.

He further says, according to the information, that Mogoera was seen at the scene of the crime and did not follow due process. He says information from other officials indicated that Mogoera did not introduce himself as a stand-by detective, he was seen going through footage about the murder scene of Siemens and he had video footage.

Mogoera and Lesia are facing different charges ranging from perjury, defeating the ends of justice, lying under oath, and murder, amongst others. Lesia was the police captain at the Bayswater Police Station.

In 2019, Lesia testified in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court that Phosholi had coerced him to state that Mogoera was corrupt and that Mogoera was also seen with documents under his arm at the Windmill Casino, in the presence of Bakili.


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