Burnt magistrates court: Some suspects could walk free
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PPEAK –There’s no doubt that the burning of Pigg’s Peak Magistrates Court was a disaster for the justice system, but some accused persons are celebrating.
This is because some of the accused persons are of the view that it would be unfair to start the process all over to recreate their records. Also, some are of the view that the initial statements of complainants were also lost in the fire.
A section of the court was set alight by unknown people last Monday. The office used by prosecutors was destroyed, leaving a lot of the dockets destroyed.
It is not the first time the court has been set alight. In March 2022, another section of the court was up in flames also in a suspected arson attack. The arsonists at the time had allegedly targeted the section where court records are kept by clerks. Some of the records
A section of the magistrates court that was burnt.
were completely destroyed. The arson attack resulted in clerks relocating to another section of the court.
Dockets
This publication established on the day of the arson attack that dockets of pending cases had been destroyed. Dockets are used by prosecutors to record proceedings. They contain information such as complainant statements, medical records for some cases and many other documents.
Some of the accused persons who were found outside the court were eager to know if their court records had been destroyed. *Bheki, who is one of the many arrested for assault, wondered whether witnesses would have to be recalled for his trial. He said it appeared his case was about to end. “Will it be fair for me to call witnesses again?” he asked.
Meanwhile, another court official wondered how witnesses would be contacted as some of them were only known to prosecutors. Their details are said to have been contained in some of the dockets that were burnt.
Witnesses
A court official who asked not to be named said some witnesses were hard to locate because they had not yet been called. Giving an example, the official stated that for witnesses who had not yet testified, it was usually their contacts that had been recorded.
However, the official also stated that some of the dockets were scanned and saved on the computer. This is said to have been done for most of the court records, especially the older ones.
He said the challenge would be the new dockets.
The Acting Registrar of the High Court, Nosipho Mazibuko, was reached for comment on the matter. However, she had not yet responded to questions at the time of compiling the report.