THE ENGLISH husband of a woman killed in South Africa last month during a carjacking was yesterday accused of plotting her murder by the taxi driver who transported them around Cape Town on the night of the incident.
Shuttle driver Zola Tongo (31) was jailed for 18 years at Cape Town high court after confessing to his role in a plot to murder newlywed Anni Dewani, which was allegedly set in motion by her husband, Shrien, shortly after they arrived in South Africa on honeymoon.
In a statement handed into the court as part of the terms of his plea bargain agreement, Mr Tongo alleged that Mr Dewani approached him shortly after his arrival in the Western Cape provincial capital on November 12th last and asked if he could secure a hit man to kill his wife.
After finding two hitmen, he said, the plotters decided the murder would be made to look like a carjacking that went wrong.
“The agreement was that after the ‘hijacking’ of the vehicle, both Shrien Dewani and I would be ejected from the vehicle unharmed, after which the deceased would be kidnapped and robbed, before she was murdered,” he said. Mr Tongo added that Mr Dewani had offered just over €1,600 as payment to whoever would murder his wife.
After the tragedy unfolded Mr Dewani told the police he and his wife had been out sightseeing when they asked Mr Tongo to give them a taste of township nightlife.
As they drove through Gugulethu township they were allegedly stopped at traffic lights by two men and Mr Tongo was forced from the car. Mr Dewani was forced from the car a short time later. His new bride was found shot dead in the back of the taxi early the next morning.
Rumours that everything was not as straightforward as it seemed began to circulate in the British and South African media within days of the killing. However, Mr Dewani was allowed to return to England, where he has remained, according to his spokesman, celebrity publicist Max Clifford.
The two hitmen were arrested within a week of the murder.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga declined to confirm or deny whether they would seek an extradition order for Mr Dewani, but said the “possibility exists”.
“That process, by its very nature, is investigative.
“We won’t be commenting on that process because we don’t want to jeopardise that process,” he said.