KFC case: injuries revealed in court
Bail application proceedings postponed
Jacob Sono, the assault victim in the allegedly racist incident at a KFC drive-thru last week, bled from the head and nose following his ordeal.
Prosecutor Ronnie Sibanda told the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court this as part of his explanation for why charges against the five accused included attempted murder.
The state also levelled charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and pointing of a firearm against the five, all white men, aged between 21 and 39.
Sono was allegedly attacked along with his wife, Dudu, at a KFC outlet in Montana, Pretoria.
The men allegedly went ballistic after he asked them to drive forward at a drive-thru.
Dudu was reportedly attacked while filming the attack on her hus- band with her cellphone.
She was heard in the video clip asking her assailants if they would hit her even though she was a woman.
Police arrested four of the men hours after the assault.
A fifth suspect, Joshua Scholtz, handed himself over to police on Monday.
Three of the accused, Stephen Nel, 39, DJ van Rooyen, 21, and Scholtz applied for bail yesterday. A fourth accused, Ockert Muller, 20, was granted bail last Friday.
The court also heard yesterday that Marius Harding, 22, the fifth accused, was abandoning his bail application until September 14.
Proceedings kicked off with lawyers for the three applying for bail, arguing against inclusion of at tempted murder in the charges.
They argued the state had not brought any evidence showing the accused acted with intent to kill the couple.
“It would be inconceivable even by wildest stretch of the imagination that [my client] had the intent to kill,” said JC Erasmus for Van Rooyen.
Johan Bornman and Francois Kriel, lawyers for Nel and Scholtz respectively, also shot down the attempted murder charge.
“I deny this can be a case of attempted murder,” Scholtz told court via his affidavit read by Kriel.
Sibanda, who opposed bail, said the state was steadfast that the attempted murder charge was warranted.
The charge was based on serious injuries Sono suffered, he said.
“It’s clear that he was kicked and assaulted several times with a firearm. He was kicked several [times] while on the ground [that] he started bleeding from the ear and mouth,” said Sibanda.
The accused indicated they would plead not guilty, saying they acted in self-defence.
They also denied they were racists, saying Police Minister Fikile Mbalula’s tweet that they went around beating up black people was defamatory.
The bail application was postponed to next Friday.
‘ ‘ It would be inconceivable ... that [my client] had the intent to kill