The state has opposed the release of CCTV footage allegedly showing the attempted murder of a state witness in the ongoing criminal case against alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield.
This emerged at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday as the man accused of being Ralph’s hitman, Jose “Makop” Brandt, returned to court for the continuation of his bail hearing.
Shocking evidence has revealed that Brandt was out on bail at the time of the shooting in Brooklyn and had even managed to flous the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court into releasing him to live at a fake address in Delft.
Brandt was arrested alongside Ralph, his wife Nicole Johnson, Johannes “Bal” Abrahams and Denver Booysen late last year in connection with an alleged manhunt of a former employee, whom they accused of stealing over R1 million from Stanfield.
During the couple’s bail hearings, the state alleged Brandt was the gunman who opened fire on the employee at a garage in Brooklyn, resulting in him becoming a state witness and going into hiding.
In his affidavit, Brandt who lives in Beacon Valley, claimed he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. Instead he said he was at his job in Beacon Valley where he works as a mechanic.
His boss, Jonathan Klaasen, also submitted an affidavit wherein he said cops had the wrong person and that Brandt was at work at the time of the shooting.
But during proceedings yesterday, state advocate Nathan Adriaanse told the court that when visited by cops, Klaasen changed his tune and claimed that he had lied in the initial statement and had been told by Brandt’s lawyer to sign the affidavit.
Adriaanse also revealed that Klaasen would come to court to testify to this effect.
Adriaanse then referred to a murder trial at the Mitchells Plain Regional Court where Brandt also faces a case of murder and two counts of attempted murder for allegedly opening fire on members of the Americans gang in 2017.
In those court papers, Brandt listed an address in Delft and was subsequently sent to live with his father named Frank at this address. But investigations revealed that the address doesn’t exist and that he had violated his bail conditions for more than five years.
Addressing the court, Adriaanse said: “I have grave concerns about the footage being shown in open court due to details of witnesses that will be revealed.”
The magistrate said she would make a decision at a later stage and the case was postponed to 17 May.
mahira.duval@inl.co.za