AKA Trial Witness Reports Threats As Others Ask To Stay Off TV

AKA‘s murder trial took a tense turn when the state said a witness had received threats after his face appeared in the news.

Prosecutor Elvis Gcweka raised the claim in the Durban High Court on October 20. He said the man told him about the threats after he took the stand the day before, EWN reported.

The news left other witnesses worried about being shown on TV. They still wanted to come to court and speak, Gcweka said. They asked to keep their faces off the screen because of fears for their safety or their work.

“Their only request is that their faces must not be shown on TV,” Gcweka said, The Citizen reported.

Judge Nomfundo Sipunzi then ruled that the next witness’s face must stay off TV. The order covered that witness, not every person yet to take the stand.

The reports did not name a sender or link the threats to any of the seven men on trial. The claim came from the state, not a court finding that one of the accused had threatened a witness.

The court had just heard about footage of AKA at the airport on the day he died. A man could be seen moving behind him, and the defense questioned who could be named from those images. The witness did not identify the man in the footage as one of the accused.

All seven men pleaded not guilty. The state must prove its case against each man, and the trial has not reached a verdict.

The new plea also came after a fight over what the public could see and hear from court. At first, Judge Sipunzi barred news reports on what witnesses said on the stand. She changed the rule on October 7, allowing the press to report their accounts and the exhibits shown in court.

But that change did not open the door to naming witnesses. Their names and personal details remained off limits under the court’s rule.

Last week, two witnesses spoke from another courtroom. They feared being named or facing the accused as they told the court about men they saw near the scene after the shots.

AKA and Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane were shot dead outside Wish restaurant in Durban on February 10, 2023.