Tempers flare as five accused appear in court on murder rap
EMOTIONS ran high when an angry Grahamstown magistrate cleared the court just before five men – one a Rhodes University #FeesMustFall activist – were scheduled to make a bail application for the alleged torture and murder of a local man.
The accused, who include well-known student activist Thembani “Zion” Onceya, 28, and two of his brothers, watched in disbelief as magistrate Ntsoki Moni instructed orderlies to clear the public gallery and lock the door after a cellphone rang unanswered while she was speaking.
Just before the court was cleared, the packed gallery was warned by a court orderly to turn off their mobile phones.
Onceya handed himself over to police last week, a day after police arrested the four other men for the alleged murder of Thembalani Qwakanisa, 29.
His co-accused include two of his brothers, Akhona Onceya, 28, and Simakele Onceya, 22, and friends Sizwe Gqotholo, 29, and Mzwanele Maki, 25.
Qwakanisa’s battered body was found wrapped in a carpet in a Joza township dam two weeks ago.
Supporters of the accused, including family and students, stood noisily outside the court alongside relatives and friends of the murdered Qwakanisa.
During proceedings it emerged that three of the men would be represented by Legal Aid while a fourth, who has previously been to state mental hospitals for psychiatric treatment, be sent for observation.
Maki’s attorney Mathew Mpahlwa told Moni the defence was of the opinion it would be prudent to send the man for mental observation.
He said the man was a wellknown patient at Fort England psychiatric hospital and the Tower Hospital and that it was in the interests of safety and justice that he be sent for mental observation.
It was decided that the man be taken for mental observation before tomorrow’s bail application.
Onceya, a well-known poet and student activist, is expected to be represented by a local attorney but the court however heard that money had not yet been paid over for the attorney and so he was unrepresented.
The arrest of the slightly-built student activist sent shock waves through the university and city.
After the court drama, a crowd of 25 people picketed outside the court building with signs calling for the accused to be denied bail.
Onceya is a third-year Bachelor of Arts student. —