The Durban Magistrate’s Court has been packed this week with the supporters of Durban businessmen and brothers Ferrel and Darren Govender.
The brothers are accused of killing a businessman from Umhlanga Shailen Singh, on December 29, 2024.
The brothers are currently applying for bail since they handed themselves over to the police on January 1, 2025. On Monday, seven buses delivered people who were wearing black T-shirts with the faces of the Govenders, written, ‘Govenders are innocent’.
The supporters also carried placards with the following message: ‘The Govenders are innocent, not guilty’; ‘The truth will set them free’ and ‘Innocent justice will reveal the truth’.
They walked into the court building and one could hardly get to the courtroom where the matter was going to be heard.
However, on Tuesday there were not many of them compared to Monday. They also reserve their seats and get to court early.
Multiple vehicles of their security company Pro-Secure are also seen in the court’s parking lot.
A close friend, brother, and business partner of the Govenders, Sandesh Moothe Ram, said the supporters are coming to court because they believe that the brothers are not capable of such a crime.
He described the brothers as saviours who take care of different communities around Durban and also donate to charity. He said the rumours that these supporters are a rented crowd were not true.
“Different companies came forward and said they would print T-shirts for the people who wanted to stand in solidarity with the brothers, others offered to get transport to take them there,” he explained.
He said because they all understand what it is like to have nothing, the brothers, who are from Chatsworth, are passionate about helping people. “We all just help people, it doesn’t matter who and I think that is why there are so many supporters,” said Moothe Ram.
Moreover, Moothe Ram expressed deepest condolences to the Singh family and said as business partners of the Govenders, they would allow the law to take its course.
Pradeep Singh, the father of Singh, said he was not paying attention to the supporters and what they were saying. He said his focus was on what was happening in court.
He described his son as a family-oriented man who loved his wife and a dedicated father to his two-months-old baby.
“The family is not coping, his wife is finding it difficult to come to terms with his death. We are considering therapy,” he said.
In court, the Singh family sits on one side wearing white T-shirts with Singh’s face on it. However, the court is mostly packed with Govender supporters.
‘The Star’ reported that Ferrel is listed as a director of 19 companies country-wide, his business interests included beverages, properties, and protection services.
In 2022, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found that Pro-Secure was among the beneficiaries of irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure when the unit uncovered irregularities of R182 million by the Limpopo Health Department in the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The brothers are currently applying for bail and they are detained at the Durban Central police station.