A stock thief serving a 12-year jail sentence and standing trial in two more stock theft cases turned to the court to have the prosecutor in his cases removed.
He claimed that the prosecutor vowed to “see him rot in jail”.
Joseph Nquru told the Bloemfontein High Court that he had a long history with the prosecutor and that in 1997 he assisted the man’s father, a lawyer, to conceal the body of a man killed during a hunting trip.
Further claims by him include that he took the fall in another stock theft case involving the clients of the prosecutor’s father and others, in return for money, which caused him to now serve a 12-year jail sentence.
Other bizarre claims include that due to his history with the prosecutor’s father and others, there was an attempt to poison him in jail. Nquru told the court that luckily he swopped his plate of food with a fellow inmate at the time and that the latter died following the meal.
His claims and application for the prosecutor to be taken off his case was turned down by the court. It came to light that Nquru, over the years and in all the stock theft cases he has been involved in has accused prosecutors, the police and even his legal representatives of conspiring against him.
He also accused them of taking part in criminal activities for which he often had to take the fall. He also accused his lawyers of refusing to follow his instructions to cross-examine witnesses regarding his version and he fired them.
The high court said, on his own version, Nquru “is not shy to deceive others and to lie on oath”.
“In a word, on the applicant’s own version, he is anything but trustworthy,” the court said.
The director of public prosecutions’ office has been receiving complaints from Nquru over the years, where he made allegations against a number of prosecutors and police officials. The latest allegations are against the prosecutor in his pending two cases.
All the allegations pertaining to prosecutors and police officials were investigated and found to be without merit.
He claimed that there was a conspiracy to see him taking the rap for others, while he did not commit any of the crimes for which he was serving jail time and for those he is standing trial at the moment.
According to Nquru, he could not have committed especially the latest crimes, as he was in jail at the time. But it came to light that he had cellphones while in jail (where he still is at present) and that he ran his stock theft business from inside prison walls.
Nquru maintained that his misfortune has its origin in 1997, when he, as a youngster of 18, had to assist the prosecutor’s father to transport and conceal the body of a worker killed during a hunting expedition.
According to him, many people, including police officers, farmers and their wives and a businessman were involved in “covering up the murder” and that he had to assist in getting rid of the body.
He said he later told the police about the “murder”, but none of those he implicated had been brought to book. Instead, he said, he had to take the fall for everything over the years.
The court found that there was no truth in his allegations and turned down his application to replace the prosecutor in his ongoing trial. In turning down his application, the court slapped him with the legal costs.
Pretoria News