No irregularities in attempted murder case

There were no irregularities in the arrest of a 38-year-old man accused of the attempted murder of an Association of Mineworkers and Construction (Amcu) official, the Brits Magistrate’s Court ruled yesterday.

Magistrate Reagan Rosenberg said Samkelo Mkhutshwa of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape was brought before court within 48 hours.

On Wednesday, his lawyer applied that Mkhutshwa be released, saying his client was only brought to court after he was kept in custody for more than 48 hours. He alleged Mkhutshwa was arrested on December 8.

Prosecutor Cassius Mona explained that Mkhutshwa and three others were arrested in connection with another case. He was arrested on December 9 a day after the other two were held in the Eastern Cape for an alleged crime they committed in Marikana. They were taken to the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on December 12, and their case was not enrolled.

He was subsequently arrested on the same day for a Mooinooi case, in which Malibongwe Mdazo, branch chairperson of Amcu was shot and wounded on July 22.

Documentary evidence was brought before court, indicating that the Rustenburg court refused to enrol the case; another document indicated the cell register and names of detainees transported from the Rustenburg police station to the Rustenburg court.

Mkhutshwa’s case was postponed to December 20 for a bail application.

Another man accused of the attempted murder of Mdazo was granted R10 000 bail on November 8.

The state alleges that Nkosinathi Mantashe, 37, shot Mdazo several times in Mooinooi in July in an apparent turf war between Amcu and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Mantashe is a NUM member. Amcu dethroned the Cosatu-alligned NUM in the Rustenburg platinum mines after a violent wage strike in 2012.

Since then there’s been tension between the two unions. – ANA