Accused not our clients, lawyers tell judge

MBABANE – Lawyers representing the accused persons yesterday applied that they be released because they were not the ones appearing in the charge sheet.

Human Rights Lawyer Thabiso Mavuso, who represents Mxolisi Jabulani Simelane, told the court that he was supposed to be representing the second accused, but the name appearing in the charge sheet as the second accused was not his client. Mxolisi appeared as Mxolisi Bryan Simelane in the charge sheet, not as Mxolisi Jabulani Simelane.

Mavuso said his colleague, Lucky Howe, who represents Zweli Simelane, was in a similar situation. Judge Bongani Sydney Dlamini enquired if the accused were the ones who were physically in court. Mavuso said the first accused, Siphosethu Sidumo Malinga, was the only one who had been correctly named. Malinga is represented by Professor Dlamini.

Howe said: “I appear on behalf of Zweli Simelane, but he has not been given a charge sheet. My client is in custody and has been there since Thursday.” He said the people named in the charge sheet were not their clients and since it had been over 48 hours since their arrest, they should be released. Howe said the Crown gave him a charge sheet in which his client was not named. He said there was no charge against Zweli, who had been named Sizwe in the charge sheet.

Committed

Judge Dlamini asked if this was a case of the names not corresponding with the accused. Howe said that was not the case. He told the court that when a person who was believed to have committed a specific crime, ‘you don’t charge Lucky Howe as Lucky Johnson Howe’.

Howe said the Crown had the accused persons in custody since last Thursday, so they should know who they were dealing with.

“So, how can you then connect the accused persons to the people named in the charge sheet? When you charge a person, you charge a specific person, not a general individual,” said Howe.

He told the court that if there was an error, the Crown should concede and apologise.

Judge Dlamini wanted to know if the parties had engaged on the matter. Since after the matter was called, the attorneys representing the accused persons rose one after the other to inform the court who they represented among the arrested trio, the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lomvula Hlophe wondered why each lawyer stood up to tell the court that they were representing them.

Hlophe also stated that when the assistant court registrar called the matter and mentioned the names of the accused persons as they appeared in the charge sheet, with the incorrect names, they remained in the accused dock and made way for those who were purportedly being called to the dock.

She said they had consulted the investigator and he had advised that the second accused was Mxolisi Jabulane Simelane, not Bryan.

The third accused, according to Hlophe, was Zweli Simelane and not Sizwe Simelane as the name appeared in the charge sheet.

Judge Dlamini adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes for the parties to discuss a way forward. The Crown amended the charge sheet.