I was not paid, says Dewani middleman

2012-08-20 15:35

Xolile Mngeni is seen at the Western Cape High Court. (File, AP)

Cape Town - A middleman was not offered payment for orchestrating Anni Dewani's murder, the Western Cape High Court heard on Monday.

The middleman, on the stand as a State witness, said he did not benefit from the plot. The court has ordered that he not be named.

"I did not get any money from all of this...There was no such promise... It's blood money."

However, Matthews Dayimani, the lawyer for accused Xolile Mngeni, said he had reliable information to suggest otherwise.

He said that shuttle driver Zola Tongo would testify that he offered R5 000 to the witness for his services.

The witness replied with: "He would be lying."

Anni Dewani was shot in an apparent hijacking while on honeymoon with her husband Shrien in Cape Town in November 2010.

Mngeni was allegedly the man who pulled the trigger.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, murder, and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

The witness alleged on Wednesday that he had been the middleman in a plot by a foreign "gentleman", Shrien, to have his wife killed.

He admitted on Monday that he never asked Tongo who the target would be at the time of his request for a hitman.

Judge Robert Henney said he found this strange.

"You didn't ask who is going to be killed. This is a serious thing... Didn't you take it seriously?," the judge asked.

The witness said it did come to mind, and at a later stage he asked Tongo while they were in his VW Sharan who he wanted to be killed.

His identity was withheld as per a court order to protect him.

- SAPA