‘Not guilty’: Khwinana’s killer fires lawyer ‘to satisfy my heart’

WHILE the family of the late Matwetwe actor Sibusiso Khwinana was geared up to hear the fate of his killer Julius Lucas, the Tanzanian fired his lawyer as he wanted to “satisfy his heart”.

Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, Judge Portia Phahlane was ready to hear arguments in mitigation of sentence yesterday, followed by delivering her sentence when Lucas announced that he no longer wanted his Legal Aid South Africa appointed lawyer.

Lucas was convicted of murder and robbery in February, which took place outside Sterland in Pretoria’s CBD. The court accepted the evidence of three witnesses that he was the man who had stabbed Khwinana outside the movie theatre complex that night and robbed him of his cellphone.

But as his jail time was looming, Lucas suddenly told the court yesterday, through a Swahili interpreter, that he was not the killer. He made it clear that he was unhappy with his guilty verdict and that he did not accept it.

His lawyer told the court that he had explained in length to Lucas that he could appeal his verdict and that nothing he did at this stage, before sentencing, could change the verdict.

Judge Phahlane went to great lengths to explain to Lucas that he had a right to later appeal and that any lawyer who now took over would proceed from where the trial was now by presenting mitigating factors to the court regarding sentence.

But Lucas would have nothing of it; he was adamant that he wanted another lawyer “to satisfy his heart”. This was the position even though the judge explained that the criminal court roll is so congested that he may only get another hearing next year.