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The accused, Imanuwela David, Froliana Joseph and her brother Ndilinasho Joseph, who are linked to the theft of $580,000 at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm, Phala Phala appear in the Modimolle Magistrate’s Court in Limpop on October 7, 2024.
The lawyer representing the second and third accused in the Phala Phala theft trial at the Modimolle Regional Court in Limpopo has challenged evidence given by a cellphone data analyst.
Defense lawyer, Advocate Relleng Masipa, says that it doesn’t mean people are in the same place if their phones are connected to the same cellphone tower.
The data analyst testified earlier that all the accused were in the vicinity of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm a day before the break-in.
Masipa is representing the Joseph siblings, Froliana and Ndilinasho.
The siblings and the first accused, Imanuwela David, are being tried for the February 2020 theft of 580,000 US dollars from Phala Phala.
“Even through Google search, you could pick that residential area, the reliance there of it, I believe when we deal with the towers, the cellphone towers, the time that these towers were activated in the residential area you will agree that anyone staying in that residential area will then activate the cellphone tower that is around Phala Phala because you are next to each other,” he argued.
The court heard that the accused and other people made numerous cellphone calls to each other.
Meanwhile, accused number one, Immanuwela David, has been in custody since his arrest in November 2023. Froliana and Ndilinasho Joseph are out on bail.
