The murder of Mr Smith

Richard West

During my stay last month in Johannes- burg there was, as usual, no shortage of startling news: South Africa's raid on

Lesotho, the verdict on Neil Aggett, found dead in the custody of the security Police, and rumours of the forthcoming West Indian cricket tour. Yet none of them Provoked anything like the interest of the Smith murder, now generally reckoned to Provoked anything like the interest of the Smith murder, now generally reckoned to

be what the papers called South Africa's

Crime of the Decade. Not only did it arouse feelings of pity and horror, and argument as to whether the three found guilty should hang. It also offered fresh insight into the strange relationship between the races living around Johnannesburg; and a hint of Political scandal.

Those found guilty of murder, Maureen Smith, a white British subject, Jack Ramogale and David Mnguni, both black South Africans, are all now waiting in Death Row in Pretoria prison for the result of their appeals which may-not be heard un- til the end of the year. Meanwhile a Johan- nesburg journalist, Paul Lange, has

Published an instant book, The Smith Murder Trial, giving a full resume of the evidence in court, and enabling one to sort out how and why the tragedy happened.

I cannot, for legal reasons, publish the whole gist of the story here in a British jour- nal. Those sentenced to hang are only three

of 11 or possibly more people who knew ." a Plan to kill Roger Smith and had at

least some intention of taking part in the crime. Only four of 'those people are African, including Ramogale and Mnguni.

rbe rest are British citizens, some of them resident in the United Kingdom. Any evidence about their activities, even when made under oath at the trial in Johan- nesburg-, is not necessarily privileged out- side South Africa. Moreover, the judge, at the end of the trial, specifically waived from one of the witnesses the immunity from future arrest

that he might have earned by giving truthful To as a witness for the prosecution. r .° be more precise, it appears from reading

the evidence in The Smith Murder Trial that several other people at any rate wanted to

Murder Smith and may have helped to do as

much as Maureen Smith and Jack Ramogale. The man who actually stabbed

Smith to death, the hired assassin David

Mnguni, is obviously in a category of his Roger and Maureen Smith, who each had a Child or two by a previous marriage, came out from England to South Africa about eight Years ago. He was a quantity tkurveYor, perhaps something more. She is also ug

as A dahter of Harry Mullocks, known rthur Mullocks, who runs a firm of insurance assessors in East Ham, London. At the time of the trial Mr Mullocks denied the allegations made in court that he and associates were involved in illegality.

The murdered man, Roger Smith, was by almost all accounts a rough sort of person, given to drink and bad language, who may or may not have made a pass at his teenage stepdaughter Karen Wood. He would not give a divorce to Maureen Smith because, so it was said in court, he was blackmailing her with knowledge of the alleged illegal ac- tivities of her family and friends. She therefore decided to have him murdered and first called in the assistance of certain British people.

These plans came to nothing, so, in June last year, Maureen Smith did what pros- perous women in northern Johannesburg normally do when they have a problem: she went for advice to her African maid, a shrewd and not very scrupulous woman called Asnath Dekobe. 'I worked for the first two weeks,' said Mrs Dekobe in court, `and in the third week the madam said that the life she was leading was not a good one. I asked her why. She said the cause of the "whole thing" was in bed.' This was the first and last mention of sexual motivation in murdering Smith. A few days later, Mrs Dekobe continued, Mrs Smith rang her up to say that her hus- band was planning to kill her, and she wanted to kill him first. Then: 'On a Wednesday, Mrs Smith said I must leave my work and come and have a chat with her. "Assie," she said. "Madam," I said. "I want you to go and get me people who can kill him [Mr Smith]," she said. I said I

had no experience of tsorsis [young black criminalsj. She said I must go and try.'

Then Mrs Smith put her hand in her bra and took out 400 rand (a rand is worth slightly less than a US dollar) and said to her maid: 'Go and look at these people and tell them this is only a deposit.' Now Assie Dekobe was too smart to get involved in hiring murderers, so she took this money and more that Mrs Smith was to give her, and kept it for herself. She did, however, give 200 rand to the chauffeur Jack Ramogale and told him Mrs Smith was wanting to find a killer. Thus began the downfall of much the most likeable and most pitiable of all the people, black and white, involved in the murder of Roger Smith. It is rather unusual even for wealthy South Africans to employ a chauffeur, but Roger and Maureen Smith lived in Kelvin, one of the newest suburbs out on the high veldt, where no buses have yet started to run to and from Johannesburg. Kelvin is almost side by side with the Alexandra township, a smaller and more peaceful place than Soweto, so African labour is very handy. The Smiths thought they would save money by running only one car and hiring Jack Ramogale as chauffeur at 220 rand a month, with free lodging and board, and permission to watch the family televi- sion set. The Smiths, whatever their other faults, were friendly and generous to their servants.

And Jack Ramogale, one of the three now sentenced to hang, was the only person involved who expressed any affection for the deceased or any remorse for the murder. He said at the trial, 'I like Mr Smith very much.' Why kill him?' asked Mr Justice van Dyk. 'It is because of the job. If it was not because of the job, I would not have been involved in this thing.' (Jack is a Sotho and speaks little English. The Afrikaner Justice van Dyk also hap- pens to speak Sotho, having been raised, like Jack, in the northern Transvaal.)

Later, the court was to hear what Jack meant by saying the murder of Roger Smith was 'because of the job'. Like many young Africans he had come to the big city hoping to find a well-paid job to support his fami- ly, including an elderly mother, as well as to raise a family of his own. He was extremely dutiful, almost passive to those in authority over him, particularly towards Mrs Smith and the maid Assie Dekobe, a middle-aged woman. Also, of course, he craved the enormous sum of 5,000 rand which Mrs Smith promised him if he managed to hire a kilter.

It was characteristic of Jack Ramogale that he went to find an assassin at the local Zion Christian Church. The `ZCCs', as they are called, have millions of followers in South Africa for what is a blend of Pentecostal Christianity and ju-ju. It is a puritanical Church. Women have to abstain from using scent or make-up; trousers may not be worn. The men like Jack Ramogale may not smoke or drink. Throughout the suburbs of Johannesburg, on a Sunday afternoon, one sees the Africans, devout and well-dressed, taking part in their out- door services that seem to have more of fetish than Christianity.

'I took Mr Smith's motorcar,' Jack Ramogale told the police, 'and went to 19th Avenue, Alexandra, where my church is and searched for Sam Sekwela. Sam and I know each other.'

Samuel Sekwela took up the story: 'I was at church on that Sunday [18 July]. Jack told me there is a white lady who is trying to kill her husband, in which then I said to him let us proceed to 17th Avenue where Vukani [the nickname of David Mnguni] lives.'

The three of them, Jack, Sam and Mnguni, then went to the Smith home at Kelvin where Mrs Smith asked (according to Sam's testimony) who was going to do the work. Jack pointed to Vukani. Then, according to Jack, Mnguni raised the ques- tion of payment. 'Before Mrs Smith replied, Vukani [Mnguni] asked for 12,000 rand. Mrs Smith said she only had 10,000 ... they then agreed on this amount.'

It was a generous fee by South African standards. A black South African taxi- driver with whom I was talking about the Smith case asked how much Mnguni was offered to do the killing. When I said 10,000 rand, the driver almost smashed his taxi with astonishment. I asked him how much it would cost to get a man murdered in Soweto (the township he lived in), to which he replied 100, or even as little as 50 rand.

According to Jack Ramogale, he, Mrs Smith, the maid Asnath and Mnguni agreed that the money should be paid out on the Saturday after the murder, at the Pan- African Shopping Centre. 'Thereafter we went to church,' Jack said in court.

On the night arranged for the murder, 20

July last year, Jack drove Roger Smith from his office back to his home, where Mnguni was now waiting. 'After I brought back Mr Smith,' Jack told the police, 'I parked the car and together with Mr Smith, went into his house, where Mr Smith, his daughter Karen Wood [actually step- daughter] and I watched television.' Also in the house that evening were Karen's boy friend and Mrs Smith's aunt who was on a visit from England.

'I later left the lounge,' Jack Ramogale continued, 'and went to the kitchen where I found Mrs Smith and Asnath. Mrs Smith then asked me if the people — meaning Sam and his friend — were outside and I answered affirmatively. I then went to my room.' Between eight and nine that evening Mrs Smith told Jack what was to be his part in the plot: to get Mr Smith outside by turn- ing off the mains switch for the current sup- ply which was in the garden. There Mnguni would be waiting. At this point Jack suf- fered torments of fear and conscience: 'I then went back to the kitchen where I told Mrs Smith I was scared and did not know what to do. Mrs Smith then said to me that I must remember the 5,000 rand that was promised to me. Asnath also told me I must go and switch off the mains switch and that Mrs Smith had promised me 5,000 rand ... I then turned off the mains switch. I was scared and ran to my room where I crept ander the blankets. I heard someone scream outside and then I heard Mr Smith calling me to come and help. I then felt sorry for Mr Smith and thought that I should die with him.' He did run outside but the murder was already committed.

David Mnguni later told police: 'The woman's husband came out and went to the mains switch. I followed him. When he lifted the door, I stabbed him in the back. We fought there. There were stones • . . The man tried to run away. I chased him and prevented him from getting away. I stabbed him twice in the front. I then went out through the gate and left.'

So many people knew of the murder plot that it was not hard to discover the cul-

prits. The police chose to prefer charges against only three of those involved, includ- ing of course Mnguni, who actually wielded the knife. The defending counsel for Mrs Smith,the impressive Lionel Weinstock, ap- peared to base his arguments on the unhap- piness of her marriage and the influence of those around her who, so it was said, ac- tually egged her on to the crime. The latter allegations cannot, for reasons already mentioned, be discussed. The argument that Smith had provoked his own murder because of his bad behaviour did not im- press Mr Justice van Dyk. As for instance in these exchanges:

Weinstock: Sundays were a dreaded day and Mrs Smith would pack her bags to leave home ... For what other reasons would she pack her bags if not that there was unpleasantness and unhappiness in the home?

Mr Justice van Dyk: Unpleasantness and unhappiness, there was no doubt of that: Weinstock: Next he would threaten to have her put away in a mental home. He said she was mad.

Mr Justice van Dyk: Isn't that common? It is the sort of language we hear at 180 divorce cases every Wednesday.

As for the stories of Smith's excessive drinking, Mr Justice van Dyk merely said: 'It is, however, strange that he kept his job, doing responsible work. We did not have a tittle of evidence that he missed a day of work because he over-indulged the night before. If he drinks so excessively, as you make out, and he still came to work every day, then I have never met someone like that.'

Nor was Mr Justice van Dyk convinced that Smith had made a pass at his step- daughter, Karen Wood. He had reserva- tions, he said, concerning some of her evidence. He was obviously shocked that she slept with her boy-friend:

Mr Justice van Dyk: They were living together. Isn't it a despicable thing to do — a girl of 17?

Weinstock: But one cannot close one's eyes to modern-day living standards. Mr Justice van Dyk: I would not accept it .... There are still people who for- tunately maintain high moral standards. I must take into account that Karen was of low moral standards herself Weinstock: Even a prostitute can be a witness. Some say they make the best mothers.

Mr Justice van Dyk: I would not agree.

The largely black audience that by the end of the trial was packing the courthouse showed little sympathy for Maureen Smith and indeed made loud and hostile com- ments. She did not take the witness stand but she caused a sensation by fainting and later having an epileptic fit. The public gallery did, however, support Jack Ramogale. He was so clearly well- intentioned: 'On Sundays I go to church. Also on Saturdays — but that is just for choir prac- tice. I do not smoke and I do not drink. I am born of a Christian family and they taught me to obey them.' He also repeated in court what he had told the police in his first confession about the night of the murder: `The manner in which he [Mr Smith] screamed made me run outside to see if I could help him. The screams he made were heartbreaking to me. I would have tried to fight with Vukani [Mnguni] because my heart was sore.' At which Mr Justice van Dyk interjected: 'It would have been easier if you had told your employer about the plans — and less dangerous.' And Jack Ramogale explained: 'I was instructed not to tell him and I was afraid to tell him that Mrs Smith wanted to kill him. I once thought of telling him but I was frightened. I was afraid that he would approach Mrs Smith and ask her [if it was true]. And if he did that she was going to deny it and I would be in trouble.'

Jack's advocate, Andrew Booysens, call- ed as a witness Gordon Isaacs, a full-time lecturer in social work at the University of Cape Town studying for his doctorate on the subject of 'crisis psychotherapy and minority groups'. The South African government had sent him abroad ten years ago to study 'crisis intervention'. The court learned from Mr Isaacs that Jack's childhood history 'revealed no apparent chronic or acute problems except excessive poverty and cultural deprivation and an in- jury to the leg which his mother describes as a process of witchcraft — in that a thorn which was embedded in his foot created a septic sore with the result that healing was long in duration. Previous employers said that Jack was reliable, trustworthy and a hard worker. However: 'When authority is presented to him in the form of (1) mother/father figures, (2) authoritarianism and command figures, (3) kindness, he has little sociological recourse to self- protection.' Since he believed that death is in the hands of the Deity and that killing is punishable by the wrath of the ancestors, Jack was persuaded to take part in the crime `to please and fulfil the role of obe- dience towards authority with a lucrative reward at the end, i.e. monetary gain'. Mr Isaacs also mentioned the 'black/white authority' issue. The same topic was raised, albeit in an obscure fashion, in an exchange between the judge and Riaan Strydom, the advocate for David Mnguni: Strydom: It has been conceded that Mnguni came from a low socio- economic background and that he lived for the moment ... The influence ex- erted on Mnguni by the offer of 10,000 rand was most important. He was a materialistic person. He was a person who was easily influenced by friends, as we heard when he left the woman he lov- ed because his friends said she was weak. Mr Justice van Dyk: In our land, whether you accept it or not, a white has a certain influence over a black. We could decide that, as an adult who work- ed for himself, Mnguni might have grab- bed the chance of a quick 10,000 rand ...

It seemed for a moment that Mr Justice van Dyk was going to accept the argument that being black and poor in some way mitigated the crime; but then he went on to say: 'All of South Africa knows that it is wrong to kill a man, except in very specific circumstances. Even the Bible says it — for those few who still read it.' In other words, he rejected the modish concept that 'society' is in some way responsible for an individual's crimes. `No other sentence than the ultimate one would suit their dark and evil crimes,' said Mr Justice van Dyk. 'All three accused are therefore sentenced to death.'

In he murder of Roger Smith has given rise

to much speculation that may or may not be based on fact. South Africa is the home of conspiracy theories. But there is a history of involvement between South Africa and rather peculiar people in the East End of London. There is, for instance, the case of Gordon Winter, a man imprisoned in England for burglary, who came to Johan- nesburg in 1960 and started a new life as a journalist. Five years later, his past caught up with him — the words are his own when he received an invitation in Johan- nesburg to ,meet Charles and Eddie Richardson, the brothers who ran the half of East London's organised crime that was not run by the Kray twins. Shortly after the meeting an Afrikaner business associate of the Richardsons who had cheated them, Thomas Waldeck, was found shot dead. The gun with which he was shot belonged to Gordon Winter; it had been lent to a third party. As a result Winter was taken into detention but was released on condition he worked for the South African intelligence service, later called BOSS. The then head of BOSS, General H. J. van den Bergh, ar- ranged a fake deportation for Winter so that he could be sent to England to spy on South Africa's enemies. While in England he became, among other things, the 'This is where Maggie's wets may come in handy.' treasurer of the freelance branch of the Na- tional Union of Journalists, an organisation that some may find even more sinister.

In his interesting book Inside BOSS, published last year, Gordon Winter refers

to some of the cases where the South African authorities have seemed to be link- ed with the London underworld. In 1966 thieves raided the offices in London of various anti-South African organisations. According to Winter, who should know, this was done by somebody wanted by the South African police, who had threatened to get an extradition order unless he per- formed this service. In the same book, Gor- don Winter recalls the case of the murder of Dr Robert Smit and his wife at their home in the Transvaal in 1977. Smit was one of the country's top financial experts and also a candidate of the National Party for the forthcoming elections. He also possessed damning information about the financial affairs of some of the top South African politicians, in particular how they had il- legally transferred money out of the coun- try to Switzerland. The murderers were ap-

parently hired professional 'hit men'. In In- side BOSS, Gordon Winter writes: 'In the course of my investigation of the Smit

murders for BOSS I discovered, from top- level underworld sources, startling details about "Mr N", a notorious gangster who once operated in London. Mr N has long been a prohibited immigrant in Britain.'

Since Gordon Winter wrote his very in- formative memoirs, two other events have occurred in which it has seemed that the South African authorities (or, more precise- ly, individuals inside one of the various government services) worked together with

elements of the London underworld. One was the abortive coup d'etat in the

Seychelles: it seems that some of the mercenaries had been recruited in London. Another was the burglary last year at the of- fices of the African National Congress in London. The English thief recruited for this purpose may well have been found with the help of South Africa's friends in the Lon- don underworld.

All these things are frankly speculation.

But for the fact that Gordon Winter broke with BOSS and went off to Ireland to write his memoirs, we still would know little about these murky schemes. There is nothing to show that Roger and Maureen Smith had connections with any South African governmental agency. There is no reason to think that the Crime Squad detec- tives who brought the successful prosecu- tion acted in any way improperly. On the contrary, they achieved a clean-cut convic- tion. Nevertheless, the nagging fact remains that the Smiths both had a rather shady in- volvement with London's underworld. This was repeatedly stated in court. The criminal world of South Africa has a distinct English connection, just as the criminal world in

America has an Italian connection. And the criminal world in South Africa has more than a passing relationship with the world of politics. The Smith case is indeed the crime of the decade.