Tough time for ‘Rambo’ witness
Testimony of accused’s girlfriend queried
You are covering up for [Kleinbooi], and have been asked to protect him. Is that right?
THE girlfriend of a man accused of killing “The Rambo of Port Elizabeth” – Naeem Desai – did him no favours in court yesterday when she kept contradicting his testimony – despite being his alibi.
Several times during cross-examination, Angelique Fillis, 18, contradicted the testimony of Deswin “Boetie Baas” Kleinbooi, who testified earlier in the day.
At one stage, Fillis told the Port Elizabeth High Court that she had celebrated Kleinbooi’s birthday with him last year, although he was in custody at the time.
“We celebrated his birthday at home, like normal,” she said.
Prosecutor Garth Baartman accused Fillis of evading questions and claimed she was covering up for him.
“The indication is that you are covering up for [Kleinbooi], and that you have been asked to protect him. Is that right?” Baartman said.
Fillis remained adamant that she was telling the truth.
She claimed Kleinbooi had fetched her with a taxi on May 10 2016 and they had gone to Kleinbooi’s uncle’s house in Stanford Road, where they stayed until his arrest three days later.
However, Kleinbooi claimed he had walked to Fillis’s home in Salt Lake to fetch her, but could not remember if they had taken a taxi or walked home afterwards.
Questioned about the day on which Kleinbooi’s birthday fell in 2016, Fillis was confident that it was on a Wednesday but could not remember the day on which her birthday fell the same year.
Kleinbooi’s birthday is on May 11 while Fillis’s is on January 26.
Fillis further claimed that the pair had shared a bed on the night of May 11 and that Kleinbooi had woken up late the following morning.
But later she conceded she would not have known if he had left and returned early on May 12.
Kleinbooi, 22, and co-accused Eston “Gans” Afrikaner, 19, are facing four charges including murder, robbery with aggravated circumstances and the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
They are accused of the 2016 shooting and murder of prominent businessman and well known northern areas crime fighter Desai, 47.
Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Desai was shot in the early hours of May 12 2016 as he waited in his Jadeed’s Bread delivery van outside a Helenvale spaza shop.
Testifying yesterday, Kleinbooi claimed he did not know his co-accused, and that while he had gone to school with Afrikaner, he did not fraternise with him.
Kleinbooi said he did not know why two state witnesses, who do not know each other, placed him and Afrikaner at the crime scene and identified them as the accused.
Both witnesses positively identified Kleinbooi and Afrikaner and gave exactly the same description of clothing both were wearing.
“I was never together with [Afrikaner] that morning and I did not know him as a friend,” he said.
Kleinbooi told the court he could not remember certain aspects of what transpired between him and Fillis leading up to and on the day of the crime.
He vehemently denied being near the scene of the crime on the day of and after the murder.
The trial continues today.