DRAMA AS LESOTHO SOLDIERS INCARCERATED IN SA ARE RELEASED ON BAIL
“Pietermaritzburg High Court overturned Maluti magistrate, Sello Mokotjo’s decision to keep the two Lesotho Soldiers in custody
There was a drama at Maluti Magistrate Court near Matatiele in the Eastern Cape when fully armed members of the South African National Defence Force surrounded the offices and the police station in the early hours of Friday morning. According to reports the soldiers acted on a tip off that Lesotho Soldiers are coming to kidnap the two soldiers arrested for stock theft by force.
The SANDF members used their cars to block the gates of the police station and some of the members cordoned off the offices from the police station to the post office. By that time the Lesotho soldiers were already inside the Maluti magistrate court and it turned out that there was a misunderstanding. The Lesotho soldiers were in Maluti to receive their two members who were supposed to be release based on the High Court Order that granted them bail. After the SANDF members were made to understand the situation they dispersed.
The reports said Dumile Tsorunyana 22 and Rorisang Moses Moeli 26 have apparently been granted bail of R50 000.00 each by the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Officials at the Maluti magistrate court officials confirmed that the High Court order was only received on Friday morning. The R100 000 bail was paid on the same Friday by the members of the Lesotho Defence. One of the bail conditions was that they must not interfere with police investigations and witnesses. Moeli and Tsorunyana received the R50 000 bail from the High Court on Thursady after they failed to convince magistrate Sello Mokotjo of the Maluti court to release them on bail.
They then appealed the refusal using the Pietermaritzburg High Court. In their last appearance Mokotjo said the two soldiers are not only facing charges of stock theft but are also facing charges that relate to robbery with aggravating circumstances, attempted murder and unlawfully entering the country with assault rifles. Their defence attorney then, Luyanda Gwiji argued that the two accused are not just ordinary Lesotho citizens which therefore means they account to a government institution qualifying them not to be a flight risk.
Defence Major Generals of both Lesotho and South Africa also signed an affidavit undertaking to bring the two soldiers for trial whenever they are needed. But the bail was refused. The refusal of bail by Maluti court angered Lesotho Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro who told SABC news in September that he was not happy by the extended incarceration of the two soldiers without giving any valid reasons.
“I am puzzled by the delays in Matatiele and the different groups that always emerge to discuss the bail application. As Lesotho we practiced a principle of innocence until proven guilty by the court of law, but the court in Matatiele fails to do that,” he said. Lesotho went further by employing services of the well experienced South African Advocate, Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza to represent the two soldiers who also failed to win against Mokotjo.
The two soldiers were arrested in August 2020 at Rooibok Mountain in Matatiele, South Africa by members of the SANDF and police. According to police, Moeli and Tsorunyane were caught ferrying 35 goats and 55 sheep to Lesotho. They spent almost a year behind bars in South Africa.
