A cluster of cellphone calls between himself and other key actors in the countdown to the killing of musician Taliep Petersen were just coincidence, Abdoer Emjedi told the Cape High Court on Tuesday.

Emjedi, accused number two in the trial, was the second defendant after Taliep's wife Najwa to take the stand in his own defence.

It was the first time he has made any public statement about his involvement in the December 2006 slaying.

He denied a claim made earlier in the trial by State witness Fahiem Hendricks, that at Fahiem's request he recruited co-accused Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders to carry out the killing.

"I've got no knowledge of that, I never did," Emjedi said.

He said although his profession was plumbing, at the time of the killing he was working for Fahiem and his brother Ebrahim as a tow-truck driver, and staying in the Hendricks' home because he was having marital problems.

Advice about marriage

He and Fahiem's wife had long conversations while Fahiem was out of the house, in which she would advise him about his marriage.

This could be one reason Fahiem had sought to implicate him in the killing, Emjedi said.

Fahiem "never liked the idea" of these conversations and at one stage warned him off.

Another reason could be that Fahiem knew he had already tangled with the law — he had spent some 15 months in jail awaiting trial on a charge which was eventually dropped, and was released only in November 2006.

This meant it was easier for people to "put their eyes on me", he said.

Emjedi said Hassen came round to the Hendricks house on 15 December, the day before the killing, when Fahiem was not there to collect a computer "box" and wiring for a car.

Though Hassen handed over R4300 for the goods, Emjedi never passed the money on to Fahiem, claiming instead that Hassen did not pay.

He did this because Fahiem had not paid him for a series of towing jobs.

Confronted with a list of calls from 13 December onwards which showed Najwa phoning Fahiem, and Fahiem phoning Emjedi within minutes of each other, he said the calls Fahiem made to him would have been about towing work or about the missing money.

Was it just coincidence?

Conversations between him and Hassen would have been about the money.

Asked by prosecutor Susan Galloway whether he was saying that if there was any pattern in the calls, it was coincidental, Emjedi replied: "It is."

Asked whether it was coincidental that there was no such pattern of calls before the 13th, and that they built up to the day of the killing on the 16th, he answered again: "It is coincidental."

Emjedi said he moved out of the Hendricks home on the 15th, to stay with his sister in Wynberg.

Asked by Galloway why he moved out, he replied: "Because I conned him. How would it be if I slept there... It's best to move on because I conned him."

Two weeks later, he bought a Honda car for R10 000. This he paid for with cash from the money he withheld from Fahiem, and payment for plumbing jobs, he said.

His advocate, Laureen Abrahams, said she had another witness, but might after consulting her client decide not call that person.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

Sapa

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