Cape Town - Investigators probing the death of City of Cape Town staffer Alistair Stanbull believe he was the “victim of foul play”.
This was revealed in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court yesterday as the men accused alongside Stanbull, who was found deceased last week, returned to court.
While DNA tests still have to be completed, police have confirmed that the decomposed body of a male hiker was found in the same vicinity where Stanbull was believably last seen.
The body was discovered at Silvermine Nature Reserve last Tuesday, a month after Stanbull’s mysterious disappearance on April 29.
Stanbull, who was employed at the City’s human settlements department, had been implicated in a R2.5 million fraud scandal and was arrested along with another colleague in November 2022. However, he was later released on R10 000 bail.
At the time, the State alleged that the employees of a construction company, including the directors, supplied false invoices to the City and allegedly misrepresented some of the work they charged for as being finalised.
Stanbull allegedly allowed the invoices to be authorised even though they knew the work was not completed.
He was reported missing on April 29 and search teams from the City subsequently searched the mountain slopes for several days with no results.
Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi confirmed that last Tuesday Kirstenhof police responded to a complaint about a body discovered at a nature reserve.
“Upon their arrival at the scene, they found the decomposed body of an unknown man dressed in grey pants and a T-shirt with black boots in a stream next to the hiking trail.
“The victim was declared deceased on the scene by the medical personnel. An autopsy will be conducted to confirm the cause of death. Kirstenhof police registered an inquest for further investigation,” said Swartbooi.
During court proceedings yesterday, Asif Khan, Abdul Khan, Uwais Khan, Irfaan Khan and Abdullahtief Abrahams from Ilitha Painters and Decorators appeared alongside Stanbull’s colleague Adam Majiet on charges of fraud, attempted forgery and unlawfully interfering with the City’s supply chain management policy.
Addressing the court, the State prosecutor said Stanbull had been marked absent for the first time since the case had started, which was set down for a pre-trial conference.
“Alistair Stanbull is absent and the reasons for his absence is that police believe he was the victim of foul play. They suspect he is deceased. DNA tests to be done but I can confirm this is the first time he has missed court. He went missing in April,” the prosecutor said.
The case became hamstrung as the court could not proceed until the outcome of the DNA tests are available and the case was postponed to September 20.