This was revealed in the Free State High Court on Monday as the trial looking into the Bloemfontein businessman’s murder in 2018 kicked off, albeit with some hiccups that resulted in proceedings being pushed back to Thursday, October 31. At the centre of the defence’s frustration and the postponement, lies CCTV footage and a stack of documents that include the statements of legal adviser to the Free State Health Department, Justice Vinger, and a “Mr Duncan Lechesa”.

While Vinger’s statement may not come as a surprise to the public, due to his arrest and subsequent addition to the state’s list of witnesses in September 2019, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding the contents of Lechesa’s statement. Vinger sat on the bid committee at the department which provides some indication as to what his testimony focuses on. The same cannot be said for Lechesa.

Siemens was gunned down in the basement parking lot of the Preller Square Shopping Complex on Thursday afternoon 10 May 2018. The men on trial for the murder are Stanley Bakili, Mogoera Molebatsi, Kagiso Chabane, Mojalefa Jali Molusi, Moeketsi Lesia, Karabo Tau, Sizwe Mpati and Clive Tshivenga. They are between the ages of 29 and 56 and include three police officers, a disbarred advocate, an accused in separate double murder cases, and a military man. Another man, Xolisile Mbebetho has pleaded guilty to shooting Siemens and is already serving a jail sentence of more than 20 years. Mbebetho is believed to be one of the state’s star witnesses in this trial.

OFM News reported on Monday that the defence was given access to copies of video footage months ago, written onto more than 40 CDs, but in a comedy of errors, most of the accused’s legal counsels, apart from Dawie Reyneke, were unable to view the footage on their laptops and/or computers. This footage is of meetings held at the Windmill Casino and at Preller Square Shopping Complex on the day Siemens was shot and killed. This is in addition to the stacks of documents which are allegedly 140 pages long.

OFM News