The man charged with well-known taxi owner and businesswoman Julia Alam’s murder denied he was involved in the shooting and being in Hermanus at the time of the fatal incident in the parking lot of the Whale Coast Mall on Thursday 7 August.
Following the 39-year-old’s murder, which shocked the Hermanus community, detectives with the Provincial Serious and Violent Crimes Unit led the investigation that saw a number of suspects taken in for questioning. Only one was charged with the shooting, which the police stated was related to ongoing taxi-violence.
Ntandazo Sipele (37) was arrested in the Cape Metropole on Friday 8 August and detained at Lentegeur Police Station. He took to the stand last week to testify in his own bail application. The state, however, opposed his bail application, arguing Sipele was a flight risk and may interfere with witnesses, defeating the ends of justice.
Sipele, from Brown’s Farm, Philippi, admitted during questioning a firearm had been found in his possession, but told the court it was licensed and both the licence and firearm were still in the police’s possession along with the Toyota Hilux he was travelling in.
Sipele was reportedly in Hermanus on the day of the fatal shooting in broad daylight along with three other men. He, however, claims he only gave them a lift from Strand to Hermanus, and did not know their names, contact numbers or where they lived.
On their arrival in Hermanus, he said, they met up with a man named Thulani and bought some food and liquor at Whale Coast Mall before going to Zwelihle where they consumed it. Sipele told the court he dropped the other men off at Whale Coast Mall hours later, at about 15:00, to buy more liquor before he had to return to Cape Town. Alam was gunned down by three unidentified gunmen who reportedly approached her as she was exiting the Whale Coast Mall at about 15:40 on Thursday 7 August.
Her murder came nearly six months after her husband, Jeffrey Zolile Alam, was gunned down in broad daylight at the Zwelihle Taxi Rank in February.
Simon Nodom, who was with Alam when he was gunned down, was shot and killed the following night. Shortly after her husband’s murder Alam told Hermanus Times they had moved away from the township the previous year due to fears for their safety after it had become known that both their names were on a hit list.
Sipele’s bail application proceedings were postponed to Monday when the investigating officer was scheduled to testify. The outcome of the bail application was not yet known at the time of going to print.
