Mg.co.za

July 29, 2008

Najwa Petersen, on trial for the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep, told the Cape High Court on Tuesday how an intruder put a gun to her head and demanded money on the night her husband was shot dead.

She was in the dock with three co-accused and has pleaded not guilty to Taliep’s murder.

Najwa said that on the night in question she went to sleep in her bedroom—she and her husband slept apart—after taking medication. Before going to sleep, she phoned a friend who had sold diamonds for her to ask if he had received the money from the diamond sales.

She told the court: “He said he had received the money, and that he was on his way to me with it.”

Najwa said after she fell asleep she was woken by an intruder wearing a balaclava, who demanded money at gunpoint. She took the intruder to the main bedroom where her husband slept and where a safe containing money was kept.

There she saw Taliep kneeling on the floor with blood coming from his nose or mouth.

There was a second intruder with Taliep, but Najwa said she could not remember if he was armed. In the main bedroom she handed the first intruder about R50 000 as well as R300 000-worth of dollars that were in the safe.

She said she was then locked in her own bedroom and, in a state of panic, telephoned her sister-in-law.

She told the court: “I told my sister-in-law that we had been robbed, and as I spoke to her I heard a shot go off. I started to scream to my son and his wife as well as to Taliep, asking if they were okay, but only my son responded. Taliep did not answer.”

Acute security awareness

On Monday she told the court she controlled the finances and had a monthly income of R100 000 as a director of the family business in Namibia—Dirk Fruit and Vegetables.

Led by senior counsel Johan Engelbrecht, she said her relationship with Taliep had been good and he was aware of her dreams to visit Paris.

The topics covered during the Monday morning session of Najwa’s testimony included Taliep’s acute security awareness, and loans that she had given to a family friend, Fahiem Hendricks.

It is alleged that Peterson approached Hendricks to find hit men to shoot dead her husband.

Peterson told the court she lent Hendricks two amounts of R20 000, which he repaid, and a third sum of R10 000.

Asked by the judge if she was in a money-lending business, she said she was not, but that she and Taliep often lent money to people they knew and trusted.

The purpose of the R10 000 loan was to help Hendricks buy stock for a cafe he had bought. She said he was often late with his repayments, but she knew that he was struggling financially.

To assist him, she had given him four polished diamonds that she obtained in Namibia and asked him to sell them for her for R250 000. If he was able to do so, he could have a R10 000 cut, which would repay the loan, she told the court.

She added: “I also had American dollars in the safe at home and I told Hendricks if he could sell the diamonds, I would also give him the dollars to sell.”

Although she trusted Hendricks, Taliep was not very happy about the fact that she had given him the diamonds, because Taliep did not know Hendricks that well.

Najwa takes stand in murder trial

Slain musician Taliep Peterson had planned to take his wife, Najwa, on holiday to London and Paris, the Cape High Court heard on Monday.

Mg.co.za

July 28, 2008

Slain musician Taliep Peterson had planned to take his wife, Najwa, on holiday to London and Paris, the Cape High Court heard on Monday.

Najwa is on trial before Judge Siraj Desai, charged with Taliep’s murder.

People crammed into the spacious courtroom to hear Najwa testify in her own defence. Before the hearing resumed, a battery of cameramen flashed away at Najwa seated in the dock with her three co-accused.

She told the court that Taliep had discussed with her plans to take her to London and Paris on the night he had returned from London, where he had staged a production.

She also said she controlled the finances and had a monthly income of R100 000 as a director of the family business in Namibia—Dirk Fruit and Vegetables.

Led by senior counsel Johan Engelbrecht, she said her relationship with Taliep had been good and he was aware of her dreams to visit Paris.

The topics covered during the morning session of Najwa’s testimony included Taliep’s acute security awareness, and loans that she had given to a family friend, Fahiem Hendricks.

It is alleged that Peterson approached Hendricks to find hit men to shoot dead her husband.

Peterson told the court she lent Hendricks two amounts of R20 000, which he repaid, and a third sum of R10 000.

Asked by the judge if she was in a money-lending business, she said she was not, but that she and Taliep often lent money to people they knew and trusted.

The purpose of the R10 000 loan was to help Hendricks buy stock for a cafe he had bought. She said he was often late with his repayments, but she knew that he was struggling financially.

To assist him, she had given him four polished diamonds that she obtained in Namibia and asked him to sell them for her for R250 000. If he was able to do so, he could have a R10 000 cut, which would repay the loan, she told the court.

She added: “I also had American dollars in the safe at home and I told Hendricks if he could sell the diamonds, I would also give him the dollars to sell.”

Although she trusted Hendricks, Taliep was not very happy about the fact that she had given him the diamonds, because Taliep did not know Hendricks that well.

The anatomy of a betrayal

Najwa Petersen appeared in court every day wearing a colour-coordinated suit, matching scarf and hennaed fingernails. She ordered 30 new outfits for the trial, allegedly underwent liposuction and had a breast enlargement operation barely a month after Petersen's death. "She's now a 36DD!" friends and relatives of Petersen said outside court.

Mg.co.za

May 18, 2008

Najwa Petersen appeared in court every day wearing a colour-coordinated suit, matching scarf and hennaed fingernails.

She ordered 30 new outfits for the trial, allegedly underwent liposuction and had a breast enlargement operation barely a month after Petersen’s death. “She’s now a 36DD!” friends and relatives of Petersen said outside court.

Najwa comes from a fruit- and diamond-trading family, the Dirks of Namibia. Her father, Suleiman Dirk, who died last year in a car accident en route to Namibia, was a highly influential figure in her life. Tabloid newspapers reported that Najwa’s relationship with him helps explain her four failed marriages, the last to Taliep. “Nobody lived up to daddy,” said Die Son in its analysis of the marriage.

In court the alleged hitmen said they received some payments directly from Dirk, who owned Dirk Fruit, an importer of fresh fruit to Namibia.

When her trial started the street outside the high court was packed with Oshakati-registered cars, mostly BMWs and large 4x4s, there to support the sister who married the man who made them famous.

Dirk and his wife lived in Athlone in a house that police suspect was bought with money made by Petersen, who was quite wealthy after decades making the minstrel performances of the Cape globally famous.

The fruit fortune, combined with Peterson’s, meant the couple were comfortably well-off. But the money, with Najwa’s fragility, was instrumental in straining their marriage to breaking point.

Revealing just how money flowed, on the night of the murder Najwa allegedly gave a bag with R27 000 in cash to Fahiem “Piele” Hendriks and Waheed Hassen, the supposed hitmen. More would be paid in wads of cash in the days following the murder, according to the state.

Najwa had power of attorney over all Petersen’s money. Two weeks after his death, Petersen’s sister arrived at their house and found Najwa and a broker completing paperwork to claim Petersen’s R5,3-million life insurance policy.

Petersen’s family and friends claim he wanted to divorce her and had bought a house where he planned to live with his children. He had four children from a previous marriage and another with Najwa.

The mirror into Najwa’s personality is contained in Petersen’s diary of his last year, 2006. An analysis of the first four months reveals she was a chronically ill woman who spent almost 85% of her time in bed.

The singer was obsessive about his wife’s health and wellbeing, revealing their intimacy even as he contemplated taking leave of her. He kept tabs on her medication, on her every ailment and movement. The diary reveals Najwa as a woman with everything and nothing: more money than she needed but without the mental health or vitality to enjoy her marriage.

It’s also clear from his diary that Petersen himself was intimately involved in taking care of Najwa. He meticulously recorded her ailments, the medicines she took, her doctor’s appointments and her stays in hospital …

Even after he was stabbed in the neck with a knife, eight months before he was shot, he wrote: “Najwa discharged from Gatesville at 15h30.”

At the end of the same day another entry reads: “Taliep rushed to GMC (Gatesville Medical Centre), stabbed,” he wrote about himself.

Later when she was checked into the Crescent Clinic for treatment for depression. “Najwa extremely depressed,” he wrote. “Najwa head confusion AGAIN” is a frequent entry. The detail of care, the constant calls to doctors and the way in which Petersen documented everything suggests a highly dependent relationship—but we now know that it was fraying.

The state’s case suggests the marriage quickly came apart in 2006 once Najwa got wind that Taliep wanted out. By December that year she had allegedly contracted Hendriks to find somebody to undertake the hit, for which she promised payment of R100 000. There were two failed attempts: in the first the alleged hitmen (different to those on trial) did not have transport to get to the airport to take out Petersen as he got off a plane from London; in another Najwa allegedly told them exactly when she and Petersen would emerge from the Luxurama cinema in Wynberg.

It was third time unlucky for Taliep when he opened the door of his home on hearing a knock on the night of December 16 2006.

While Hendriks struggled with Petersen, Najwa came in. “She grabbed him around the neck. Tears flowed from his eyes when he realised that she was in on the whole thing,” Hendriks said in his affidavit. “I put the gun in the cushion and I said to Najwa: ‘Do it yourself.’ She pulled the trigger and then screamed."

How detective became suspicious of Najwa Petersen

A detective told the Cape High Court on Thursday that he became suspicious of murder accused Najwa Petersen after hearing her sobbing account on the night of her husband's Taliep's death. The officer was the second witness called in the trial of Petersen and the three men she allegedly hired to carry out the execution-style shooting.

By Ben MacLennan - Mg.co.za

April 10, 2008

A detective told the Cape High Court on Thursday that he became suspicious of murder accused Najwa Petersen after hearing her sobbing account on the night of her husband’s Taliep’s death.

Inspector Brian Hermanus, of the Athlone police, was the second witness to be called in the trial of Petersen and the three men she allegedly hired to carry out the execution-style shooting on the night of December 16 2006.

He said when he arrived at the Grasmere Street home, he saw Taliep’s body lying at the top of a flight of stairs, his bloody head covered with a towel. He found Najwa and her daughter Zainub, then about eight years old, in a bedroom. Najwa was sitting on a bed crying, and appeared confused.

She told him she had heard the bell of the security gate on the property’s front entrance ringing and assumed that Taliep had pressed the button to open it.

She said that soon afterwards a man wearing a balaclava and gloves had come into her bedroom, taken her to Taliep’s bedroom—the couple at that stage slept in separate rooms—and demanded money, which she gave him from the safe in the room.

When Hermanus asked her where Taliep had been while this was happening, she initially could not answer him. She was sobbing so much he had to give her breaks to calm down. He asked how many suspects there had been, and she said again that one man had entered her room, though later said there had been “one or two”.

“I then asked her again where the deceased [had been] and she replied that they were ‘busy’ with him. I asked her what she meant by ‘busy’. She just said, repeatedly, that they were busy with him and she started sobbing again.”

Hermanus said he then went to talk to Najwa’s adult son from a previous marriage, Achmat Gamieldien, who lived in the house with his wife and baby daughter.

Gamieldien said he had been woken by a man wearing gloves and a balaclava, holding a gun in his right hand, and that Najwa was standing beside the man. The man demanded money, and took about R1 500 from his jeans, cellphones, watches and a digital camera before leaving with Najwa and locking them in the room.

Hermanus then went back to Najwa, and asked her where Zainub had been during the ordeal. She initially told him Zainub had been in her bedroom when the man entered, then changed her mind and said he had been in Taliep’s bedroom.

Hermanus said her state had been no different from that of any other house-robbery victim he had interviewed in his long police career. “At that moment it appeared it was a genuine house robbery. But later that same morning I began to have reservations about what had happened,” he said.

Asked to explain his statement by prosecutor Susan Galloway, he replied: “Because of what accused number one [Najwa] told me on the crime scene… the fact that no one else had heard the doorbell ringing.

“The fact that she was not sure in which bedroom her daughter had been when the suspect entered her bedroom, the fact that she could not specify [anything] when she told me that they were ‘busy’ with him, and that she was not sure how many suspects there had been. And the fact that ... she had accompanied the suspect to her son’s room.”

Asked why this should be suspicious, he said it was a “gut feeling”, adding: “The impression I formed [was] that it might have been to protect her son.”

The state claims the robbery was staged to cover the killers’ true motive—to shoot Taliep.

Cross-examined by Najwa’s advocate, Klaus von Lieres, Hermanus said Najwa’s sobbing had appeared genuine, but added: “People get Oscars for acting. I could not say she was acting at that time.”

Earlier on Thursday, Judge Siraj Desai, his two assessors, the four accused and their legal teams all visited the Grasmere Street home for an on-site inspection.

Najwa and her co-accused were in ankle shackles, and though she was able to hug her daughter Zainub, it was at the centre of a ring of heavily armed police.

The other accused are Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders.

Najwa Petersen pleads not guilty to murder

Najwa Petersen on Wednesday formally pleaded not guilty to the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep. Taliep was shot in the couple's Athlone, Cape Town, home in December 2006; his wife is standing trial in the Cape High Court along with three men the state claims she hired to carry out the killing-

Mg.co.za

April 8, 2008

Najwa Petersen on Wednesday formally pleaded not guilty to the murder of her entertainer husband, Taliep.

Taliep was shot in the couple’s Athlone, Cape Town, home in December 2006; his wife is standing trial in the Cape High Court along with three men the state claims she hired to carry out the killing.

Standing in the dock before red-robed Judge Siraj Desai and two assessors, Petersen, in her trademark dark glasses, showed no emotion as she pleaded not guilty to murder, an alternative of conspiracy to murder and to firearms and robbery charges.

Her co-accused, Abdur Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders, also rose in turn to plead not guilty as lead prosecutor Shareen Riley read out the allegations against them.

Before she called her first witness, Riley asked Desai to provisionally admit hearsay evidence related to the motive for the killing.

She said she wanted to lead testimony from witnesses who had had conversations with Taliep before his death on the state of his marriage, the handling of financial affairs and “the reason he wanted a divorce from the accused”.

Desai granted the application over an objection from Petersen’s counsel, Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau, that it would be “severely prejudicial” to his client.

The first witness that Riley called, shortly before the lunch adjournment, was Riefaat Soeker, a cousin of Petersen’s, who shared the couple’s Athlone home.

Earlier on Wednesday, Desai rejected a bid by Von Lieres for an order that the state give the defence more detailed particulars on its case against Petersen.

He said he was not persuaded by Von Lieres’s argument that the defence did not have enough information to answer to the charges.

“In my view the accused has been furnished with sufficient particularity of the charges she faces in this court,” he said.

Taliep Petersen (15 April 1950 – 16 December 2006) was a South African singer, composer and director of a number of popular musicals. He worked most notably with David Kramer, with whom he won an Olivier Award.

Career

One of "South Africa's best known theatre personalities", Petersen was born in the multi-cultural neighbourhood of Cape Town, District Six. He first sang publicly aged six, at the Coon Carnival. His first theatre performance was a part in a 1974 production of Hair, followed by Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. After a period studying classical guitar at the Fitznell School of Music in England, he wrote his first revue, called Carnival a la District Six, based on the New Year celebrations in Cape Town.

In the 1980s, Petersen formed a band, called Sapphyre, that played interpretations of traditional Cape Malay songs. In 1986 he and David Kramer collaborated on the first of a number of musicals together, District Six: The Musical, exploring the culture and history of the Coloured community in Cape Town. This was followed by Poison, Fairyland, Crooners, Kat and the Kings, Klop Klop and Spice Drum Beat: Ghoema. A number of these toured internationally; Kat and the Kings had runs in Las Vegas, New York's Broadway and in London's West End. Ghoema had opened in London's Tricycle Theatre shortly before Petersen's death. In 1999 he and Kramer won the Best New Musical Olivier Award for Kat and the Kings, with the cast sharing the Best Actor in a Musical award.

In 2001 he presented a television series about District Six called O'se Distrik Ses and has featured on South Africa reality talent shows, Idols and Joltyd. in 2002, he created a sitcom called Alie Barber. In 2005, a second season of Alie Barber was shown and Petersen released songs from the series on the 2006 album Deur Dik en Dun, his first in Afrikaans.

Death

Petersen, a practising Muslim, was twice married and fathered six children. He was shot dead at his home on 16 December 2006. In tribute Ebrahim Rasool, premier of the Western Cape, praised Petersen's ability to "capture our entire history, express our deepest pain, articulate our joy, and demonstrate our humanity through music and drama."

On 18 June 2007 Najwa Petersen, the wife of Taliep Petersen, was arrested at the family home in connection with the murder. Together with three men she was charged with his "planned and/or premeditated" murder. Najwa Petersen was convicted in the Cape High Court on 2 December 2008 along with two hitmen, Abdoer Emjedi and Waheed Hassen. All three were found "guilty of murder and of robbery with aggravating circumstances". Judge Siraj Desai postponed the matter to 4 February 2009 for sentencing procedures, at which Najwa Peterson was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Wikipedia.org