Saturday, May 8, 2010

Cosatu should know better than Terre’Blanche bail demand










Trade union federation Cosatu is demanding that the two men accused of the murder of AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche be given bail.
In a statement, issued by the Congress of SA Trade Unions in the North West, the union says that the suspects must be given bail like those racist farmers who killed farm workers deliberately, claiming they were mistaken for dogs or baboons.
Moreover they confirm that local affiliates will be appearing at the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court to show support for the family of the accused killers when they appear on May 10 and 14.
“Our support to the family is that justice must be done.”
Terre’Blanche was killed on April 3, allegedly by one man and one teenage boy who were labourers on his farm.
Bail
In accordance with the law of South Africa, bail is granted to accused if it is believed that they will stand their trial rather than flee and that they will not interfere with the investigation prior to their trial.
The fact that some whites in Ventersdorp got bail for some racist crime or some blacks in Soweto got bail despite the fact that there were four dead schoolboys has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the court dealing with these bail applications.
The magistrate will look at the issue of bail strictly in accordance with the law of the country and whether the two accused before him or her qualify or not in terms thereof.
The first question will be whether the accused are being charged with schedule 5 or 6.
A schedule 6 offence means that the applicant has to show that exceptional circumstances exist for him to be released on bail. In the case of murder it will be a 6 if the state believe it was planned or pre-meditated.
In contrast section 60(11) (b) of the Act provides that where the accused is charged with a schedule 5 offence the onus lies with the state. The ordinary burden of proof that the interest of justice would be best served by the continued detention of the accused remains with the state until such time as it has shown the offence with which the accused is charged to be one that falls within schedule 5.
The state may discharge this burden by giving a full and proper description of the alleged offence in the charge or by leading evidence or by resorting to a certificate from the Director of Public Prosecutions in terms of section 60 (11A) of the Act.
Then depending upon which schedule is applicable the applicants (accused) will lead evidence in the form of an affidavit or by putting the accused into the box to show why the relevant onus is discharged.
To achieve this the attorneys for the accused will cover the factors mentioned in section 60(4) a-e of the Act in order to show that bail should be granted.
Again issues relating to other bail applications are totally irrelevant to this court.
Cosatu
While it is proper for Cosatu to bring, what they believe are racial inequalities, to the attention of the public, it is not in order for them to demand from our courts that black people be given bail because, they allege, certain whites were in some other cases.
They know that the call is ridiculous and puts unnecessary pressure on a court that is — at best — going to be highly charged.
Perhaps the senior leadership might want to have a word with their branch on this issue.

Related Posts
Juju was right, Zuma and Mbeki are two sides of same coin
SACP and Cosatu play a vital role in SA today
Pat on the back for Mthethwa
Pope Goes the Weasel
Get in on the conversation
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 2:14 pm and is filed under News & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cop probing Terre'Blanche murder arrested
Johannesburg -
The investigating officer in the murder case of AWB leader Eugene Terre'Blanche has been arrested, police said on Friday.While declining to name him, Hawks spokesperson Musa Zondi confirmed Captain Tsietsi Mano has been arrested along with seven other police officers for allegedly assaulting a suspect in a house robbery case."The suspect that was assaulted was another policeman," said Zondi.Mano and the seven other officers were called to a police office, where they were arrested by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) on Friday. They were all released on bail of R500 without appearing in court, said Zondi."A magistrate was at hand," he said about their release. He declined to give any details about where the arrest took place, or to release the officers names, neither did he have any details of the alleged house robbery case.Main State witnessMano, as the investigating officer of the Terre'Blanche murder case, was one of the main State witnesses in the case against 28-year-old Chris Mahlangu.Mahlangu and a 15-year-old boy are accused of bludgeoning the Afrikaaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader to death in his room on his farm just outside Ventersdorp in the North West on Easter Saturday.Mahlangu's formal bail application was expected to continue in the Ventersdorp Magistrate's Court on Monday.Zondi said there were no reasons why Mano would not be able to testify."I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be able to (testify)," he said.Mahlangu's lawyer, Puna Moroko said the bail application would continue.He appeared confident that the application would be successful. "I normally get what I want in court," he said.The ICD could not be reached for comment on Friday night.
- SAPA
Read more on: crime mafikeng icd awb eugene terre'blanche

1 comment: