High court overturns tavern owner’s kidnap conviction

A TSHOLOMQA tavern owner managed to avoid a murder conviction for shooting one of two young men he accused of trying to steal liquor from his facility.

And now Sihleninjani Mxokozoli has had his conviction for kidnapping overturned.

Mxokozoli was acquitted of murdering Anele Komani after the East London Regional Court accepted his explanation that he had shot the young man in selfdefence. He was also found not guilty of attempted murder.

After finding his tavern burgled in October 2011 and being told that Komani had left stolen liquor at a neighbour’s place, he sought the two men and locked them up in the storeroom while he waited for police to arrive. Mxokozoli claimed when he went to check on the detainees, Anele attacked him with a knife and he fired two shots in self-defence, one killing Anele.

The local court convicted him of kidnapping Siyabusa Mfazwe, sentencing him to five years’ imprisonment. Now, judges Irma Schoeman and Nomatamsanqa Beshe, sitting in the Grahamstown High Court, have overturned the conviction. Schoeman said that while the charge sheet alleged Mxokozoli had forced Komani into his vehicle and taken him back to the tavern, there was no allegation he detained the man against his will at the tavern.

Komani’s father, Vayimani Komani, who insists his lay preacher son was returning from a prayer meeting on the night of his killing, said he was shocked at the appeal decision. “Why don’t the courts believe the victim’s version? My son was intentionally killed.

“No liquor was found in my house or in his possession.”

The father said he had written to the judges asking them if, by their judgment, they were giving him permission “to take the law into my own hands”.

He said he had also asked for a Legal Aid attorney to assist him to understand the judgment.

In his judgment last year, Rossouw had scathing comments about the police’s “almost non-existence of an investigation” in the case. Among the lapses was a failure to include a ballistic expert’s examination of the crime scene.

Schoeman also criticised the police’s tardiness in responding to the incident, and said the prosecutor had handled the case badly.