Honeymoon husband 'changed £1K in pawnshop on day of wife's murder'
by Laurie Hanna, Daily Mirror 18/12/2010
Officers have quizzed staff at the Golden Touch jewellers and reckon the millionaire businessman handed over the money without showing any ID.
They say they have CCTV footage two days later showing Shrien handing cash to taxi driver Zola Tongo, 31 – allegedly to pay the hitmen who killed his new wife Anni, 28, on their honeymoon. Dewani, 30, denies any involvement in the killing.
Pawnshop staff have given police statements as well as CCTV footage of the day.
Owner Maria remembers Tongo bringing an English man in to exchange cash.
But the amount was so large she had to take it elsewhere to change. The deal lasted no more than 10 minutes.
She said: “We have lots of taxi drivers, especially over the World Cup period. He came with Tongo, who chatted with my female staff while I changed the money. I don’t remember the Englishman’s face but I remember the amount. Maybe he was wearing sunglasses but I see so many faces in a day it’s impossible to remember them.
“The girls all remember Tongo. I didn’t give a receipt. I gave him the top rate as a favour.”
Tongo was last week sentenced to 18 years in jail for murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances and perverting the course of justice.
Two other men – Xolile Mnguni, 23, and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 25 – face charges of murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
Dewani was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to murder Anni and is fighting extradition to South Africa from his home in Bristol after being granted bail for a £250,000 surety.
The pawnshop in Cape Town he is said to have visited is close to official currency changers.
Yesterday it was busy with local punters being buzzed in through in a metal security gate.
Asked why a millionaire tourist would come to her, Maria, in her 40s, said: “People have different reasons. Sometimes they don’t have ID with them.”
The next highest amount she could remember recently changing was £193 from an Iranian couple.
Sitting behind a kiosk, she offered a steady stream of mainly young men, cash for jewellery on a no-questions-asked basis. She said Tongo had been a regular customer, bringing small change in foreign tips that she collects and then changes with official dealers.
On the day of Anni’s murder, she said Tongo had asked to look at a bracelet but did not buy it.
Before he and the English man left she remembers Tongo asked her for his commission but she told him he could only have 10 rand as she had given the “top rate”.
The driver gave the money to one female worker while handing his phone number to another, she said. The two women were unwilling to talk to us yesterday.
Last night the Dewanis’ spokesman Max Clifford said: “Shrien asked the taxi driver where was the best place to get the best rate and it was the taxi driver who took him there. It was his decision to go there and not Shrien’s.”
A Dewani family source added: “Shrien was so in love with Anni, she was the woman of his dreams, he was smitten by her.
“Every day they would be calling each other until the early hours of the morning and again first thing when they woke up. We have phone records to prove this. He is absolutely devastated. He’s distraught.
“It was not arranged, there was no dowry or pre-nup, they just wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.
“Shrien is being persecuted, not prosecuted. He is not a monkey, murderer or evil. He played no part in her murder.”
