The Durban High Court has reserved its judgment in the bail appeal of murder-accused security boss Ferrel Govender.
Govender and his brother, Darren, allegedly killed Shailen Singh earlier this year at uMhlanga Meridian Drive.
According to the State, Ferrel accused Singh of having an affair with his girlfriend and threatened to kill him.
Both the brothers applied for bail; however, the Durban Magistrate's Court granted Darren R200 000 bail on February 3, 2025, and Ferrel was refused.
In the bail appeal in this court on Tuesday, the defence said Magistrate Kevin Broughton was misdirected in relying heavily on the strength of the State's evidence.
The defence questioned why magistrate Broughton did not allow the identification parade documents to form part of the State’s case in the bail application.
“He should have compelled the State to produce those identification parade documents,” said Advocate Michael Hellens SC, defence counsel for Ferrel.
Hellens further said a State witness who was supposed to point Ferrel as a shooter in the identification parade did not. The other State witness who did not go to the identification parade said he saw Ferrel in the vicinity of where Shailen was killed.
The witness knows Ferrel and named him. Hellens argued that this witness did not see Ferrel shooting Singh.
“The other witness did not observe the shooting,” he added.
“If someone said they saw me in Pinetown walking towards a vehicle and in 30 minutes a person was shot dead. When the magistrate is weighing the truth. Is that not what he takes into account?” asked Judge Mfuniselwa Nkosi.
However, Hellens criticised the reasoning of magistrate Broughton, saying that Judge Nkosi could form his opinion on this.
Hellens said there was also no evidence that Ferrel was the one driving a black BMW that was seen leaving the crime scene after the shooting of Singh.
“Did the maid not say the BMW was being driven by an appellant (Ferrel)?” asked Judge Nkosi.
He said that based on this, the State does not have a strong case.
Senior State advocate Krishen Shah said: “There was no other person who threatened the deceased, there was no other person who had reason to kill the deceased. No other person had the link to the girlfriend. When one considers all facts, the State had a strong case.”
He said the State did not hide that Ferrel was not identified at the identification parade.
He reminded the court that senior attorney Ravindra Manklall was at the identification parade, and he knows what happened.
“Maybe the person looks familiar, or there is a remarkable likeness. I agree that it could make the State’s case weak, but that's not the only evidence we have,” he said.
Shah said Ferrel did not dispute that he was driving the BMW X5. As Shah finished his submissions, Hellens told the court that should it overturn magistrate Broughton’s decision, he has compiled a draft order that contained bail conditions and the amount of bail to be paid, which is R200 000.
However, Shah objected to this, and Judge Nkosi did not accept it and said he would alert the legal officers to draft the order.
Judge Nkosi said his secretary would communicate with the legal counsel regarding the date for his ruling.