Sandiso Phaliso
A Namibian national reported to have stolen an alleged $4 million (R68 million) in cash from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm appeared in court on Thursday on an unrelated charge.
Urbanus Shaumbwako was named in an affidavit by former spy boss Arthur Fraser as one of the suspects in the Phala Phala farm robbery.
Shaumbwako was arrested and charged with being in possession of an unlicensed firearm.
In 2020 Shaumbwako was stopped by Cape Town traffic officers at a random roadblock on Blaauwberg Road in Table View while driving his housemate’s car.
According to the charge sheet, the police noticed a suspicious red plastic bag on the passenger floor. Shaumbwako allegedly sped off and a car chase ensued.
However, they eventually caught him when he attempted to flee on foot and an unlicensed firearm was found in the bag.
His legal representative, Reon Hackrath, told the Cape Town Regional Court on Thursday that his client felt “unsafe” at Pollsmoor Prison and wanted to be moved into “protective custody” because Hawks officers kept visiting him, questioning him about the Phala Phala robbery.
Hackrath said his client had learnt that recently a friend of his who lives in Johannesburg was shot dead.
“He fears for his life. He does not feel safe,” said Hackrath.
“When he leaves here” – the court building – “he is going to the same facility where he was taken by the Hawks officers for interrogation purposes about the Phala Phala farm robbery,”
Hackrath said on the evening of 27 July he received a call from a senior officer attached to the Hawks to say that they had spoken to Shaumbwako outside of Pollsmoor Prison.
“They told me my client was a witness, not a suspect, in another matter. I was told the matter involved a robbery at the Phala Phala farm. My question to the Brigadier was ‘why do they speak to my client without my presence?’.”
Hackrath asked the court to order the investigating officer to “refrain from seeing or talking to my client without my presence”.
The court asked Hackrath to return to court on 30 September to submit a motion to move Shaumbwako into protective custody.
National Prosecuting Authority Western Cape spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the case was postponed in July because the accused wanted to enter into a plea bargain with the state but that he had changed his mind.
Ntabazalila said the application from the defence asking for protective custody is supposed to be brought to the Department of Correctional Services.
