Fury as serial offenders regularly get bail

Fury as serial offenders regularly get bail

September 14 2011 at 11:25am
By CANDICE BAILEY AND OMPHITLHETSE MOOKI
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National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele expressed concern over serial offenders being granted bail in an interview at his Waterkloof, Pretoria, home.

One is an alleged serial house robber – he has been given bail 30 times.

Another allegedly belongs to the most notorious cash-in-transit heist gang – he has been granted bailed 32 times.

The third is the alleged head of the Rolex gang – he has been freed on bail 16 times.

Prince Nkosivmile Mahlangu, Seuntjie van Wyk and Kelvin Ludidi are just three of the country’s most dangerous criminals.

And these three repeat offenders have been given bail repeatedly by the country’s courts – a move that demoralises police.

Last week, national police commissioner General Bheki Cele broke his silence on how courts released repeat offenders on bail time and time again.

“That’s one thing that makes police go berserk, go mad,” said Cele, speaking from his home a day after the launch of the annual crime statistics.

He said justice and constitutional development director-general advocate Simon Jiyane had called for a meeting with the justice, crime prevention and security cluster tomorrow to talk about the situation. “The judiciary is independent. But there are prosecutors who choose to (work against) police officers rather than criminals,” said Cele.

He said serious criminals were being bailed for serious cases. “Mark Ishlove, the reservist guy who was shot in Northcliff (Joburg) a few months ago, was shot by a guy who was on bail. It’s a serious thing.

“Those who shot Constable Fihliwe Mavis Bengeza in ZonkiZizwe earlier this year were on bail,” said Cele.

Van Wyk has allegedly been committing crimes since 1995. His crimes range from murder to robbery, cash-in-transit heists, thefts and fraud. Yet he has still been granted bail 32 times.

Van Wyk is currently in custody after his arrest by the Hawks in February last year.

Mahlangu, 32, has allegedly committed thefts and housebreakings from Hercules in Pretoria to Parkview in Joburg and Florida in Roodepoort.

He has seven different addresses across Pretoria, four different cellphone numbers and at least three aliases.

Yet, in his latest case, a house burglary in Florida, he was given bail again and is scheduled to appear in court on November 11.

Ludidi has been bailed 16 times between 1995 and 2009. He is currently out on R10 000 bail for a 2007 case of armed robbery in which a gang followed a couple from the Sandton City shopping mall.

A former prosecutor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the main consideration in granting bail was whether a person was a flight risk, so not much attention was paid to whether the person had previous convictions for crimes like murder and rape.

“The prosecutor will obviously oppose bail, but if the magistrate is not convinced a person is a flight risk, then he’ll grant bail. This is because the Criminal Procedure Act is not a superior law of the country… the constitution is.

“So, constitutionally, a person is innocent until proven guilty. You cannot hold previous convictions against a person.

“It doesn’t mean that just because a person has previous convictions, then he’s automatically guilty of the other crime,” said the lawyer.

A police officer, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, said the situation was unfair.

“Police spend sleepless nights looking for suspects. They stand in the box giving reasons for the suspect not to be bailed. But it feels like the courts do not consider the police work that went into arresting someone,” the officer said.

One case that the officer knew of was that of serial rapist Moagi Molefe. Molefe had been found guilty of rape in Carletonville and was sentenced to four years. But he was given bail pending his appeal.

“If you look at the Moagi case, you can see how pathetic the courts can be. The courts basically gave him permission to go out and commit he rapes in a better way,” the officer said.

He added that they also looked at previous and pending convictions when opposing bail,

“but sometimes the courts don’t consider those”.

But National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said that in every bail application, previous convictions had to be presented so that the court could be better informed before a decision on bail could be taken.

“Every bail applicant has an obligation to disclose his previous convictions and pending cases. Failure to do so can result in (an accused’s) bail being revoked,” he said.

Justice spokesman Tlali Tlali said the
cluster was issuing policy guidelines for the SAPS, the NPA and court officials because it had been found that relevant information was often never placed before the court to enable presiding officers to make just decisions. - The Star