Mail & Guardian reporter
Four people have been found guilty in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court of robbing National Party MP Abdul Ganie Mohammed of more than R70 000 at the Carousel entertainment complex outside Pretoria in 1995.
Andre Pretorius, his wife Vanessa, and two accomplices, Theresa Howard and Jacomina Pretorius, claimed Mohammed tried to solicit sex from the three women before they doused his drink with a tranquilliser and robbed him.
Although Pretorius and the others never denied robbing Mohammed, and admitted embarking on a robbery spree in 1995 from which they netted R250 000 over three months, they accused Mohammed of initiating the contact with them at the Carousel. Mohammed, in turn, contended that the case was a simple robbery.
He said in an affidavit, which was submitted to the court in September, that he had been gambling when the four accused approached him. “I was playing the gold star machine, which displayed a jackpot value of approximately R6-million. While I was playing the machine, two girls approached me, one standing on the right, and the other on the left.”
The police investigating officer, Sergeant Carel Kleynhans, told the court the four had been arrested after being monitored on video cameras at the Carousel.
Speaking from his parliamentary office in Cape Town, Mohammed said this week that he was glad the ordeal was over. “My name was dragged through the mud, but I have been vindicated. Now these robbers will have to face justice.”
The four will be sentenced on November 14 in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.