Trucker bail bid in three weeks
IT WILL be three more weeks before Pinetown Magistrate’s Court hears the Field’s Hill crash truck driver’s bail application.
Sanele May, 23, was due to make a brief appearance and return tomorrow for his bail application to be heard, but there was a delay in finding a stand-in magistrate when magistrate Wendolyn Robinson was off sick.
May, pictured, faces 22 counts of murder as well as reckless and negligent driving after he lost control of the truck which ploughed into four taxis and cars almost two weeks ago.
After the case got under way before magistrate Queen Khuzwayo, attorney Theasan Pillay announced his withdrawal as May’s legal representative.
This was because he was also the attorney for the truck’s owner, Sagekal Logistics, and this could amount to a conflict of interest. May was brought to court briefly to verify that he was aware of Pillay’s withdrawal, to which he nodded.
Pillay whispered to his former client: “You take care”, and left.
There was a further delay after May, wearing an oversized shirt, unbelted pants and new shoes appeared in the dock only to have to wait as his interpreter battled to push through the crowd in the packed court. Yesterday Professor Lindokuhle Mdletshe appeared for May. Prosecutor Vikesh Sewnath asked that the bail application be postponed to October 8 to give the investigators time to verify various issues.
Mdletshe agreed, asking only that May be held in the Pinetown holding cells and not in Westville prison.
Outside the court Derrick Mdluli, the director of the Justice for Prisoners and Detainees Trust, said they were supporting May to ensure his rights were not violated. “We strongly feel that the first accused should be the owner of the truck.”
A Facebook support group established to support May has 7 600 members.
Almost 3 000 Facebook users have liked “Support for Sanele Goodness May” page.
Almost 14 000 signatories are on an online petition calling for a proper investigation to be done into the accident, before “taking away the life of a young man who already has to live with the deaths on his conscience”.