Disappearance of dockets, Endless postponement of cases, absence of court interpreter of prosecutor: The story of Maluti court and Police station.
The Oxfam and Holekane Womanx Support Organization told the informer that they have counted more than 20 GBV dockets that have disappeared from Maluti police station in the last three months.
The Maluti Magistrate Court and the Maluti Police Station who are neighbours in the district have become notorious for bundling processes and coming up with dubious decisions leaving Matatiele residents fuming with frustrations. Many have described these offices as animal circuses.
In the Maluti Magistrate Court, If it is not a matter of the absence of electricity; no running water, absence of court interpreter, recording machines not working, dockets missing, endless postponement of cases, it is cases dragging to reach trial stages.
A recent case that was thrown out of the court that set tongues wagging is the rape case involving a 13-year-old victim. The case was struck off the roll because of a missing docket. “How old is the victim,? I am strucking the matter off the roll because there is no docket,” said the Magistrate to a rape suspect, Makhosi Kutwana who was allegedly accused of raping his minor daughter.
According to The Oxfam and Holekane Womanx Support Organization, they raised the issue of missing dockets to former Maluti Station Commander Colonel Plaatyi after 20 cases were allegedly thrown out because of dockets not making their way to courts “In the last 3 months of April/May/June 2021 we have been monitoring cases of GBVF in Maluti Magistrate Court, more than 20 cases have been thrown out of the Magistrate Court, or didn’t find its way to be protected in Court. We tried to raise this issue with the ex Maluti Station Commander Colonel Plaatyie on the matter of his members who seem not to be prepared to engage the Department of Justice and SAPS commissioner to reopen most cases of GBCF around Matatiele/Maluti Magistrate Courts who were struck off the roll due to the missing dockets and ineffective policing”, said Nomvula Qola who is the gender activist at Oxfam.
A famous bail application of triple murder accused that took almost three weeks still takes a trophy.
While it is constituted in the South African Constitution that a person is eligible to apply for bail within a period of 48 hours and judgement handed out within seven days, it took almost three weeks for Thabo Makhethe, 67 -year-old who is a suspect in the case. Makhethe never anticipated that his right of bail application to be heard within seven days would be violated by amateur bizarre incidents, which resulted in delays. The bail application started almost smoothly, however that was short-lived. The court proceedings were halted because there was no water. The following day, a court interpreter was reported to be off sick, resulting in the adjournment of the application.
The court plugs followed suit and stopped working causing disruptions, coercing the court to push the case by days to allow technicians to be called in. On the set date, the Prosecutor responsible for the case was said to be off sick and will be available the next day, however, that was not the case as that did not materialise, causing another adjournment. The endless bail application postponements saw Attorney Mc Claude fuming, implying that it is not fair that the Prosecutor could not make it to court, while his client availed himself considering that his health is deteriorating. When the Prosecutor finally graced the court with her presence to hear judgment, the recording machine stopped working, pushing the defence team to ask for the impossible from the Magistrate, pleading that he continues to give judgment without recording it. A plea which was rejected by the Magistrate, it took another day for the case to be finally heard.
A Magistrate official who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Informer one day said that they are aware of the above-mentioned issues, and the reason they happen is that officials report to KwaZulu-Natal and they undermine the communities. “Although some complaints are raised due to communities not understanding the procedures some are intentionally caused by arrogance from the officials. KwaZulu Natal high authorities rarely come to these offices and listen to these complaints in the Eastern Cape. Things might be better after the office is realigned with the Eastern Cape province,” said the official.
In as far as the Police Station is concerned, Police are accused of lacking humanity even before executing their job, One incident that left many shocked was when Mpharwane Makumane visited the police station to ask for a protection order against her boyfriend. Mankumane was prepared even to sleep in the station, however, she was told that the police station is not a BNB. She was brutally killed the following day by her boyfriend.
Another case was that of Moeketsi Mohatla, who was murdered by Mzomhle Duma. Duma was arrested and found guilty by the regional court in Kokstad. On the day of sentencing, Duma did not pitch up in court, Maluti police did not circulate his picture as a wanted man. His sister Tsilane Mohatle said she visited the police station a number of times. A police officer there showed her an empty docket telling her that he does not know what happened to other papers. He is a free man even today. A Mount Fletcher cluster commander Brigadier Majikijela once told the community of Mtsekoa in a meeting that Maluti police are corrupt.
