Husband ‘plotted South Africa honeymoon murder’

A BRITISH businessman conspired to have his Swedish bride murdered on their honeymoon in South Africa, it was alleged in court yesterday, in a sensational twist to an apparent robbery and shooting.

Anni Dewani, 28, was shot dead after the taxi in which she was travelling with her husband Shrien Dewani was hijacked on the outskirts of Cape Town on November 13, just weeks after their marriage.

Her body was later found in an impoverished township neighbourhood.

Dewani has denied any involvement, but the court heard allegations he had connived with a taxi driver to have his wife killed.

Three men were charged with the murder but as part of a plea bargain the High Court in Cape Town heard one of the accused allege that the victim’s husband ordered the killing.

“The deceased was murdered at the instance of her husband,” Western Cape director of public prosecutions Rodney de Kock told judge John Hlophe in court, national news agency SAPA reported.

A judicial spokesman refused to say if Dewani, who accompanied his wife’s body back to Britain, would be charged.

The claim that Dewani plotted the murder was made by Zola Tongo, the driver of the taxi in which the couple had been travelling in Cape Town.

Tongo was sentenced to 18 years in jail yesterday after pleading guilty to murder and aggravated robbery, as the victim’s father looked on and wept.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said Tongo had given evidence that he was approached by the British businessman and promised 15,000 rand (€1,600) “to remove someone off the scene”.

“After some discussion with him I understood that he wanted someone, a woman, killed,” said Tongo in a sworn statement.

He enlisted two accomplices to conduct the murder, according to Ntabazalila.

“Threatening me and Shrien Dewani with a firearm was a mere pretence of force....” he said.

“The hijackers had thereafter driven off with the deceased and Shrien Dewani, with Shrien Dewani’s consent, in accordance with the pretence of force, and not in furtherance of kidnapping and robbing him.”

The two other men accused of Dewani’s killing are due to face trial on February 25.

Tongo told the court he went through the hijacking and murder details with Dewani, even taking him to a black market foreign exchange dealer in Cape Town to arrange payment and avoid a bank audit trail.

“The agreement was that after the hijacking of the vehicle, Shrien Dewani and I would be ejected from the vehicle unharmed... the deceased would be kidnapped and robbed, before she was murdered.”

Since returning to Britain, Shrien Dewani has enlisted the help of publicist Max Clifford.