Yes to 'own story' as evidence
2003-07-02 20:51
Johannesburg - A statement made to police by Ishmael Moshoeshoe, one of the three men accused of trying to rob a Clicks branch in Johannesburg in 2000, was provisionally allowed as evidence by the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday.
Moshoeshoe is standing trial with Sifiso Mbambo and Richard Molimi, a former Clicks store manager, after allegedly planning and trying to execute a cash heist at the Southgate Mall branch of Clicks on October 30, 2000.
The three men face charges of murder, attempted murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and contraventions of the arms and ammunition act. A hostage was taken during the incident and two people - the hostage and a security guard - were killed.
Police Superintendent Leon Visser told the court on Tuesday that Moshoeshoe was arrested on January 9 2001, some months after the other two accused. Moshoeshoe said he wanted to tell his side of the story, and Visser took down a statement.
During the trial Moshoeshoe contested the admissibility of the statement.
On Wednesday, however, Judge D Makhoba ruled that the document be provisionally allowed as evidence.
According to the statement Molimi, then a store manager with Clicks, was the mastermind behind the robbery. He approached Moshoeshoe and asked him whether he knew people who could come and "take some money from Clicks". Moshoeshoe approached Mbambo, whom he knew as an experienced robber.
The three of them met at a fast food outlet to plan the robbery. They tried to execute their plan on October 30 but failed.
In the statement Moshoeshoe said he did not take part in the robbery, but sat outside the mall in a car waiting for news.
He left when nothing appeared to happen, and was later told by Molimi that the robbery had failed. He was very angry at the failure, he said, and did not speak to Molimi or Moshoeshoe until he was arrested.
Counsel for Molimi pointed out to the court that various store managers did duty at Clicks on different days, and that Moshoeshoe's statement did not identify Molimi by his full and proper name.
- SAPA