Anger over criminal justice system

A VETERAN crime-fighter has spoken of his frustration with the criminal justice system, saying his organisation kept arresting the same perpetrators who were either released on bail or given a slap on the wrist.

JJ de Villiers, who heads up Hout Bay Community Crime Prevention, said he had come to the conclusion the constitution protected criminals.

“These guys are granted bail even for violent crimes and with records as long as my arm.”

An example De Villiers says was a mugging at Sandy Bay by two men, one with a butcher’s knife, in February: “We caught them after tracking their phones.

“They had the knives, screw drivers and all the stolen goods.”

They were handed over to the police and six weeks to the day De Villiers was called about a mugging at Sandy Bay and went through the entire process again of tracking the phone and staking out the route – only to find it was one of the same perpetrators.

De Villiers said when he went to the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court he was told by the prosecutor to go home because the magistrate could not preside over the case.

“It was my third time in court that week. The first time the defence was sick, then the next time the defendant was sick and then this.”

De Villiers has photographs of all those he has apprehended and pays informants for details of them.

Hanif Loonat, the Mitchells Plain Community Police Forum cluster chairman, said it was a concern across the city that repeat offenders were serving extremely short sentences.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said it was difficult to speak in general terms about such serious allegations.

“It would help if there were specific cases that De Villiers was referring to so that we would be in a position to look at the merits of each case, understand the reasons why that particular accused was released from custody and the status of that particular case,” he said.