Ses’Khona sentencing delayed as nine encounter challenges
A LACK of funds and sufficient time to consult a social worker, as well as an outstanding Correctional Services report, led to the postponement yesterday of the sentencing procedure in a case involving nine members of the Ses’Khona People’s Rights Movement.
The group’s leaders, Loyiso Nkohla and Andile Lili, and several supporters were convicted in February for contravening the Civil Aviation Act for dumping human waste at Cape Town International Airport in 2013.
Yesterday in the Bellville Regional Court, the court was scheduled to hear evidence in mitigation of sentence, but the nine accused’s legal representative, Pearl Mathibela, objected to the continuation of the case, asking for more time.
In her judgment in February, magistrate Nonkosi Saba said the crime carried a minimum sentence of 15 years.
When Saba proposed that the case be postponed to today, Mathibela responded she had received reports in mitigation for five of the accused only last Friday, and for the other four yesterday morning. “We will need more time to prepare,” Mathibela said.
“We will not be able to address all the reports. My submission is that we will need more than a month to prepare.”
Barnabas Xulu, also for the accused, told Saba that even if there was sufficient time to consult, the accused did not instruct them financially and needed to raise the money.
He said representing the accused was expensive, and the legal representatives needed the money because they have rent and salaries to pay.
Xulu said withdrawing from the case was out of the question, as it would mean that the new lawyers have to start from scratch, which would lead to further delays.
Lili said they would go door to door asking for donations to raise money needed for the case as the organisation was poor and had no money.
“We had to ask our legal team for a postponement so that we can raise the money. This is not the only case we are dealing with, as there is a case in Cape Town we are dealing with, and these lawyers are representing us (in all our court cases).”
Addressing Ses’Khona members outside court, Lili said: “We must go back to our masses and to the Capetonians and tell them that we cannot afford our legal fees.”