It is me in the picture but I don't understand how this happened, were the words of a man forced to abandon his bail application last week after a shock revelation in court.
It is me in the picture but I don't understand how this happened, were the words of a man forced to abandon his bail application last week after a shock revelation in court.
His name is Gordon Hasim and he was in court for a bail application following his arrest on a car-theft charge. Except that if investigating officer Warrant Officer Robbie Roberts has it right, his name is actually Bongani Jele and KwaZulu-Natal police are looking for him in connection with rape and murder.
Hasim, visibly shocked, listened in the Grahamstown Magistrate's Court on Wednesday as Roberts revealed that Bongani Jele had several pending warrants of arrest against him, including one of murder and rape, possession of an unlicensed firearm and theft of a car. Hasim insisted he was not Jele and said he had never been charged with a crime.
Roberts said he had shown photographs of Hasim to witnesses linked to the case.
When I asked them who the man in the picture was, they identified him as Bongani Jele, Roberts said.
Asked by magistrate Makhetho Pheko if he wanted to respond to the allegations, Hasim said,. I was put through all the machines by the police. This information would have come up if I had done any of these things.
Hasim took time examining the pictures, admitted that they were of him and said he knew the witnesses.
It is me in the picture but I don't understand how this happened, he said.
Hasim told the court he wished to abandon the bail application until the identity problem was sorted out.
I am not sure if I am thinking in my correct senses or if I am making the right decision, but I will abandon bail, said an emotional Hasim.
Hasim became more emotional when Roberts told the court that the man who had sold him the alleged stolen car had died. The case was postponed to 5 October.
Jele is wanted in connection with the rape and murder of a woman in Utrecht, theft of a motor vehicle in Emadadeni and for possession of an unlicensed firearm in Dundee.
