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- Derek Sait and Stefan Smit’s widow Zurenah have applied for bail in the Stellenbosch Magistrate's Court.
- Sait, a former policeman turned bodyguard, claims that Smit had no faith in the local police.
- Sait, co-accused Damon and Sait’s brother Bradley van Eyslend, the head of security, had all been on duty the night of the murder.
Stefan Smit had laid umpteen charges with the police following attacks and robberies on his two Stellenbosch homes since the 1980s, and had turned to private security as he had lost faith in the authorities.
This is according to Derek Sait, a former member of his security detail, now accused of his employer’s murder.
Sait, 56, is charged alongside Smit’s wife Zurenah and his brother-in-law Steven Damon of killing the wine farmer in a hit made to look like a farm attack.
Sait and Smit are applying for bail. As it is a schedule six offence – the State charges the murder was premeditated – the onus is on the accused to prove special circumstances existed to justify their release.
But while he alleges that police had failed to take action against threats upon Smit’s life as he fought the occupation of his farm Watergang adjacent to Kayamandi, the State charged that Sait and other members of Smit’s own security team had staged an incident so that their employment contract could be extended.
The two men were arrested last Thursday and Zurenah on Monday, a year and a half after Smit was shot dead after having dinner with his wife and a family friend in their home on Louiesenhof on 2 June 2019.
Sait, Damon and Sait’s brother Bradley van Eyslend, the head of security, had all been on duty that night.
According to Sait, who had been investigating threats and attacks on Smit and his farm, they had not heard any shots being fired.
The security team had been employed after the occupation in 2018 of Watergang, next to Louiesenhof, which Smit's family owned via a trust. Watergang was occupied by backyarders from nearby Kayamandi who renamed it Azania. Following an application for an interdict to remove them, the municipality eventually bought the land for R45 710 000.
Sait, a registered private investigator who had worked as a police detective for 18 years, said Smit had told him he had "had it" with the local police and that he had had no faith in them.
He claimed that Smit had asked him to investigate the threats, including a message the vintner had received that he would be burnt alive.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Lecardo Davids questioned Sait’s probe and who he had thought was behind Smit’s untimely death.
Sait claimed two men, who he said were involved in the so-called land invasion and members of the EFF, as well as "their boss", were his main suspects. He would, however, not divulge who the supposed head honcho in his theory was, despite Davids telling him that it made no sense for him to withhold this supposed information as he was now one of the people accused of the crime.
Sait had maintained:
When pushed to confirm the details on why he had left the service, Sait conceded he had been dismissed.
This, he said, after he was found in possession of dagga.
He had also been charged with armed robbery, but the case was later withdrawn.
Sait - who criticised the the police’s investigation into the murder, alleging that evidence meant to have been collected the night Smit was killed had been retrieved in the day and weeks that followed - was accused by Davids of concocting a story to confuse the police.
He charged that the security team had been involved in an incident in 2018, when fires were burnt and shots were fired outside Smit’s home. According to the prosecutor, this had been done to instill fear and ensure that their contract with the Smits was extended.
Sait is being held at Pollsmoor Prison, in a cell he shares with 10 others. The married father of two complained that no social distancing was being enforced and that inmates were forced to clean their quarters with whatever detergents were available to prevent contracting Covid-19.
The application continues on Friday.
