Secret surveillance used in the investigation against former Western Cape police commissioner Arno Lamoer, was under the spotlight in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
The court is holding a trial-within-a-trial to determine whether an application to conduct surveillance of Lamoer, tow truck company owner Salim Dawjee, and Brigadiers Darius van der Ross, Sharon Govender and her husband Colin Govender, was procedurally correct.
In the witness stand was Colonel Abdul Enus, commander of an investigative unit in the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks, who has been hauled over the coals over the manner in which the accused were investigated.
On Monday, Dawjee’s counsel William King SC questioned Enus about the security clearance credentials of head of the Western Cape’s Crime Intelligence Unit, Major-General Mzwandile Tiyo.
Enus acknowledged that Tiyo had meetings to discuss the accused. There were at least 17 meetings and Tiyo had attended some of them, the court heard.
However, the witness added that he had no knowledge of Tiyo’s security clearance status or whether he was entitled to be present at high-level crime intelligence meetings, such as the ones relating to the Lamoer investigation.
King said he intended to call Tiyo to testify in court.
On Friday, the court had heard that Enus’s investigation diary had to be reconstructed because it had been stolen in Durban.
He was asked to go through a list of information and tell the court whether he had obtained the information before or after permission to conduct secret surveillance was granted.
In addition, hearsay information had to be pointed out.
The trial-within-a-trial continues on Tuesday.
[Source: News24]
