A total of five additional people accused of murder and attempted murder have been linked to the ongoing case against alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson.
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Jonathan Cloete, Shakeel Pelston, Abraham Wilson, Warren Lee Dennis and Imtiyaaz Sedick appeared in the dock last week on various charges of murder and attempted murder, including the February 2023 murder of City of Cape Town official Wendy Kloppers.
The charges against Dennis, relating to the murder of Wendy Kloppers, has also been linked to the case involving elements of ‘construction mafias’.
Kloppers was shot and killed at the Symphony Way Housing Project building site in Delft. At the time, City Manager Lungelo Mbandazayo said she was killed after the City of Cape Town resisted caving in to gangsters who had been pressuring contractors for work.
Her death led to the City’s investigation of certain construction-related tenders.
The five face more than 20 charges combined. On Tuesday, it was revealed that the case was linked to one involving a vehicle left, of which Stanfield and Johnson are the main accused.
The various charges laid against them, alongside those against Denver Booysen, Johannes Abrahams, and Jose Brandt, include theft and fraud, and Stanfield also faces an attempted murder charge.
The latter commenced in September last year following Stanfield and Johnson’s arrest at their Constantia home, Daily Maverick reports.
During the proceedings this week, prosecutor Frank van Heerden told magistrate Alida Theart that the State might add more charges and accused should it be able to trace them.
‘When everyone is around, we can properly iron things out,’ he added.
He also asked that the matter be postponed to allow the five accused to ‘meet with Stanfield and the other co-accused in the dock’.
Western Cape police commissioner Lt-Gen Thembisile Patekile was optimistic about the recent developments in the case. ‘We’re not yet out of the woods. However, we’re eating the [criminal] element piece by piece, then we hope when we are done, there’ll only be bones left.’
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Picture: Jaco Marais / Gallo Images
