OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 10.00AM
SUPERINTENDENT Andre Edward Lincoln, former chief of the Western Cape’s witness protection programme, appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court on Monday to face 46 charges of fraud, theft and defeating the ends of justice, only to have a drunken driving charge added to the list.
Lincoln appeared briefly before Magistrate VR Gibson, who extended his R2000 bail and set the trial date for November 23. Monday’s hearing was called to add the drunken driving charge, which was to have been heard in the magistrate’s court. The trials have been joined to avoid unnecessary costs.
Lincoln, a former member of the African National Congress’s department of intelligence and security, was the subject of a police investigation last year for allegedly “getting too close” to the subjects of investigations while he was head of the presidential investigations task unit .
The fraud counts involve alleged hire of luxury vehicles under false pretences, and false expenses claims including an investigative trip to Angola that was fully paid for by controversial tycoon Vito Palazzolo. Palazzolo is believed to have mafia links, and has been deported from South Africa in the past. Attempts are afoot at present to extradite Palazzolo to Italy for trial on mafia-related charges.
Another fraud charge relates to Lincoln’s claiming expenses for using his own home as a witness protection programme safe house.
The count of defeating the ends of justice relates to Lincoln allegedly having prevented Jacques Giuseppe Mangiagalli from serving a 15-year jail sentence.
The drunken driving charge relates to a motor collision on July 27 last year, when Lincoln allegedly smashed into two parked vehicles.