Africa-Press – South-Africa. A witness in the trial of alleged tobacco industry hitman Jonathan Schoeman has told the Gauteng High Court sitting in Palm Ridge that the travelling insurance salesman had promised her that he would take the fall for everything.
This was after she was arrested and found in possession of a bag containing a gun and six military-grade hand grenades that Schoeman had allegedly given to her for safekeeping.
The woman, who can’t be identified because she is a state witness, took the stand on Tuesday.
An investigation by News24 previously revealed that Schoeman and Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department officer Sebestian Groenewald had access to an arsenal of weaponry, including high-explosive fragmentation grenades, which are limited for use by the military in a time of war.
The two are alleged to have acted in concert, and being party to five murders in Reiger Park in the east of Johannesburg to settle gangland scores.
In her testimony, the witness told the court that, before her arrest in 2020, Schoeman allegedly brought a black box to her home and told her to “keep it safe”.
Schoeman had promised her that he would collect it at a later stage. The woman told the court that he said that the contents belonged to Groenewald.
Groenewald was found murdered in April 2020.
The woman said Schoeman’s wife collected the black box at a later stage and left behind a black bag. When she was arrested shortly after the Easter weekend in April 2020, police found that the bag contained a handgun and six hand grenades.
During her arrest, she said she submitted an affidavit to police. In it, she claimed that Schoeman had instructed her to deny knowledge of the firearm and hand grenades.
“I told the officer the truth, but not the whole truth. I did not tell them the whole truth because I was given instructions. He [Schoeman] told me not to worry, he will take the fall for everything.
“The accused told me that I must say that he brought the black bag to me, and it was the belongings of Sebestian.”
Schoeman’s lawyer, Nthabiseng Mokoena, honed in on her first statement, and specifically where she had not told the “whole truth”.
“The part that it was just a black bag that was brought to me, and that I did not know what the contents were,” she replied.
The woman told the court that Schoeman had assured her “not to worry, he will sort it out”.
“So you lied to the police?” Mokoena asked her.
“At that moment, yes, I did,” she replied.
The woman also told the court that she had made a second affidavit to her lawyer when she applied for bail the same year.
She said she had confessed to her lawyer that she knew about the firearm and the hand grenades.
“I opened the black bag, looked inside, and searched and realised that there were hand grenades and a firearm inside,” she said in her affidavit read out in court by Mokoena.
The trial continues.
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