Not sure why this question needed its own thread since it could have been asked in the other money exchange thread.....
The answer to your simple question is equally simple. As I understand it, Dewani did not do anything illegal.
The shop owner was the one who performed an illegal transaction. If Dewani had committed a crime, then he would have been charged and found guilty of that crime as there was clear evidence of him engaging in the transaction.
Dewani's explanation is that he asked Tongo to take him somewhere that he could get a good exchange rate for his foreign currency and Tongo took him to this jewellery shop. There is nothing unusual or suspicious about this explanation. It makes valid sense and is what many tourists do every day, regardless of whether they have also drawn cash from a machine. Tourists assume that locals can advise them where to get a good rate. Unluckily for the Dewanis they got their advice from a crooked gentleman who had gained their trust and was willing to abuse it.
If anyone did anything illegal it was the three Capetonian locals; the jewellery store owner Maria Bravetti, the shop employee, Thelma or even Tongo - all of whom would have been aware that the transaction was illegal. Dewani was the foreigner who was taken there by his local trusted tour guide.
The three people involved gave three different versions of events.
Dewani said he changed GBP
Owner Bravetti said he changed $US
Shop assistant Thelma gave a police statement saying that Bravetti gave her some gold at the back of the shop and asked her to take it to another trader to exchange for Rand. It is not at all clear whether that gold was alleged to have come from Dewani, or whether Bravetti simply needed to swap some gold to get enough Rand to be able to complete the transaction with Dewani. Thelma was not called as a witness in the trial. Any poster in this thread who tries to insinuate that Dewani swapped a gold watch for cash is wildly speculating with no substantiation.
If anyone had an incentive to lie about this transaction, it was the shop owner and the shop assistant who were both carrying out an illegal trade that they both knew was illegal.
Dewani had no reason to lie about what currency he exchanged. How would it benefit him to claim in court that he changed GBP if he actually changed $US? It could only serve to increase suspicion and work against him.
Anyone who tries to label this money changing transaction as clandestine or the cash as "secret money" is simply trying to spin the same silly story as Tongo in a transparent and unsubstantiated attempt to make Dewani look suspicious. The transaction could never have been a secret considering there were other customers in the store, not to mention Bravetti and Thelma. One need look no further than the Dewani trial to see that Bravetti was called as a a witness, so if Dewani had in fact done anything illegal, then Bravetti's testimony would have seen him convicted of that crime.
So what happened to the R10000? That remains one of the unknowns. Dewani claimed that it was in Anni's handbag that was stolen during the robbery. Mngeni claimed that Qwabe took it. I seem to recall that Qwabe claimed that he and Mngeni split it, although Qwabe gave different stories in the Mngeni and Dewani trials.
It should further be remembered that this money exchange trip was one of the areas of testimony where Tongo was caught red handed fabricating evidence designed to incriminate Dewani. Paragraph 23.1.54 from the Dewani judgement reads:
23.1.54 Both in his plea explanation and in his affidavit, he (Tongo) stated that the accused had asked him if he knew of a place where he could exchange dollars for rands and where he did not have to produce his passport. This money was according to Mr. Tongo earmarked to pay the killers. In cross-examination it transpired that the accused never indicated that he did not want to produce his passport. His passport was, in fact, never mentioned. Mr. Tongo stated that that was just something that he (Mr. Tongo) thought. Mr. Tongo attributes the allegation in his affidavit in which he claimed that the accused did not want to produce his passport to a “mistake”. This is a serious mistake – because if in fact the accused deliberately wanted to act in a manner to hide the fact that he changed the money to pay the killers – it would certainly call for an explanation from the accused. It is a further indication of how Mr. Tongo was prepared to lie in a way which creates an atmosphere of suspicion regarding the accused.
