{"id":21068,"date":"2013-07-11T17:40:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T15:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/state-witness-tells-court-of-memory-loss\/"},"modified":"2013-07-11T17:40:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-11T15:40:23","slug":"state-witness-tells-court-of-memory-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/state-witness-tells-court-of-memory-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"State witness tells court of memory loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/861e1_2636361888.jpg\" alt=\"scrap metal companies\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">Independent Newspapers<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">Robert Mc Clelland outside the Kwadakuza court. Photo: Marilyn Bernard<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/crime-courts\/witness-tells-of-shady-deal-1.1544772\">Witness tells of shady deal<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/news\/crime-courts\/lawyer-sheriff-ex-boss-in-dock-1.1544145\">Lawyer, sheriff, ex-boss in dock<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Durban &#8211; A key State witnesses in the case against a Ballito businessman, a lawyer and a deputy sheriff suffered from short-term memory loss, the KwaDukuza Regional Court heard on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Private investigator Sean Peirce told magistrate Fikile Luvuno that, in about 2000, he suffered a head injury which hampered his memory. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">This came after he gave evidence that, in 2009, businessman Robert McClelland offered him thousands to collect a box of stolen evidence from a public official, but that he refused. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cI have trouble remembering dates and things,\u201d Peirce said yesterday, \u201cBut I remember being asked to get the box.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The State has alleged the former deputy sheriff of Stanger, Oshwin Maharaj, stole evidence &#8211; intended to be used against McClelland in a R54 million civil suit, involving scrap metal giant The New Reclamation Group, from the sheriff\u2019s office.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Maharaj was allegedly paid R50 000 by McClelland to hand this evidence to a former employee of the latter\u2019s, Nelson Pereira, who handed it to attorney Brian Morkel, after which it disappeared.  <\/p>\n<p>                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/45cfa_1751613685.jpg\" class=\"pics\" alt=\"scrap metla companies\" title=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">Brian Morkel outside Stanger court. Photo: Marilyn Bernard<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\"><span class=\"captions_credit\">Independent Newspapers<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">McClelland and Maharaj have been charged with corruption and Morkel with defeating or obstructing the course of justice. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Peirce first took the stand on Monday. But advocate Terry Price, acting for McClelland and Maharaj, questioned Peirce\u2019s credibility.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The court heard he was in litigation with McClelland and that two statements he made to a private investigator had not been commissioned before a commissioner of oaths. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Peirce, however, said that he later remembered a plainclothes policeman was present when he gave one of the statements. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">When Price put it to the witness that his version was false and that he was neither offered money nor asked to pick up a box, Peirce told the court of his impaired memory. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">It later emerged that he had not made mention of his impairment in either of his statements, nor had he told public prosecutor Naveen Sewparsat about it. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The trial continues today as Pereira, who turned State witness, takes the stand. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\"><strong>The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Independent Newspapers Robert Mc Clelland outside the Kwadakuza court. Photo: Marilyn Bernard Related Stories Witness tells of shady deal Lawyer, sheriff, ex-boss in dock Durban &#8211; A key State witnesses in the case against a Ballito businessman, a lawyer and a deputy sheriff suffered from short-term memory loss, the KwaDukuza Regional Court heard on Wednesday. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-21068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}