While the state has withdrawn a charge of defeating the ends of justice against murder accused Donovan Wolf, arguments about the alleged planting of knives and the handling of the police investigation rage on.
Conflicting statements made by four witnesses first to the scene after Wolf shot Clyde Stuurman dead more than two years ago, coupled with allegations of improper conduct by the police and prosecution, added fuel to the defence’s belief that the state had concocted a version to bolster allegations that Wolf had hunted his victim down with the sole purpose of killing him.
Since his February 26 2021 arrest, Wolf has remained adamant he was acting in self-defence when he shot Stuurman in an open field near the R102 in Jeffreys Bay.
The state, however, charged Wolf with premeditated murder, claiming there was no reason for him to have armed himself with a firearm and purposely gone looking for a “suspicious” man wearing a black hoodie walking behind his Beefwood Crescent, Wavecrest, home late on the evening of February 10 2021.
In his plea explanation read out by defence attorney Peter Daubermann at the start of the trial, Wolf said he had seen Stuurman holding a knife when he emerged from the bushes where the fatal shooting took place.
According to Wolf, he had instructed Stuurman to drop the knife, but he had instead lunged at him.
After a scuffle, Wolf eventually shot Stuurman in the chest.
In the Gqeberha high court on Friday, Daubermann brought an application for the state to provide the defence with copies of certain sections of the police docket, specifically internal reports and the investigation diary.
This came after the state provided further particulars to the defence in relation to the charge of defeating the ends of justice when it was alleged Wolf or other persons had planted knives at the scene to back up his version of self-defence.
Senior state advocate Marius Stander later dropped the charge without explanation.
In those documents the state claimed Wolf had previously threated to shoot Stuurman if he saw him walking in the area again, and that a member of the local neighbourhood watch, Sarel Breytenbach, admitted to planting a “further knife” close to Stuurman’s body.
On the day of the shooting Stuurman was allegedly found holding an “okapi knife” and the other “military knife” was found about two metres away.
The state initially alleged someone had planted the knife in Stuurman’s hand.
This came to light through subsequent statements made by state witnesses, including Breytenbach, Pieter Brendenkamp, Desiree Coetzee and Natasja Ellis — all part of the neighbourhood watch of which Wolf was believed to be a member.
In his original statement to police on February 11 2021, Breytenbach mentioned noticing a knife at the scene when Wolf pointed out Stuurman’s body before police and paramedics arrived.
Brendenkamp said in his February 23 2021 statement that he had been alerted to the knife a short distance from Stuurman’s body by Breytenbach.
Ellis and Coetzee made no mention of knives in their initial statements.
In a later statement dated September 15 2022, Breytenbach said he had handled the knife by picking it up and placing it down again.
He later admitted on October 4 that he had purposely placed his military-style knife at the scene.. He denied knowledge of the knife in Stuurman’s hand.
In her October 4 statement, Ellis claimed she knew Breytenbach always carried an “okapi knife” and that during a meeting between the four on February 22, Breytenbach had told the group: “I wiped the knife clean and then put it there.”
According to Ellis, Breytenbach had laughed and asked them not to say anything.
But it is not only these witness statements that the defence has scrutinised.
Wolf alleges the case against him was tainted from day one through the involvement of then-prosecutor Vicky Rossouw, who handled his bail application in Humansdorp.
According to Wolf, Rossouw, allegedly a close friend of Stuurman’s sister, Lucretia, the court clerk at the time, had involved herself in the matter for personal reasons.
Wolf accused Rossouw of improperly suggesting the incident was racially motivated.
“It also became very clear that Rossouw did not remain objective, but instead acted on behalf of the family of the deceased and involved herself personally in the investigation,” Wolf said.
Wolf spent 84 days in custody before his release on R5,000 bail on appeal.
In a scathing judgment at the time, Eastern Cape deputy judge president David van Zyl lambasted magistrate Una Rhodes and Rossouw for their alleged irregular conduct in the handling of the bail application, stating that the race issue should never have been suggested.
Wolf further questioned the manner in which the case had been investigated after revelations that the investigating officer, Captain Francis Scott, was also close friends with the Stuurman family, so much so that it is alleged on the night of the shooting Stuurman was on his way to visit Scott’s wife, Selma.
“The fact that Scott’s wife was like a mother to the deceased compromises his ability to act in an objective and impartial manner,” Wolf said.
Stander told judge Avinash Govindjee that he would submit responding papers on Monday.
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