State’s case in church attack ‘ weak’
There’s not enough proof, says court
The state’s case against 42 men accused of the Modise church attack was torn to pieces in court yesterday.
All 42 men who are accused of attacking the International Pentecost Holiness Church (IPHC) were granted bail of R5,000 each in the Westonaria magistrate’s court.
Magistrate Gavin Pillay said the state’s case so far was weak as it had failed to provide certain basic evidence which could link the accused to the killing of five people at the IPHC.
Pillay said the state had also failed to link the accused with the firearms that the police confiscated on the day of the attack.
He said it was disturbing that the investigating officer, Sgt George Maditse, could not link any of the firearms to the accused.
“The investigating officer eventually said he does not know if anyone among the accused was arrested in possession of the firearm. The question is, how did they recover these firearms and from whom were they recovered? Surely an arresting officer should identify what was recovered from the person being arrested.
“For the investigating officer to state before the court that ‘I do not know’ means that none of the arresting officers indicated the confiscation of firearms from the accused. Or else the investigating officer was ill-prepared for the bail application. He says they were armed to their teeth as they were brought out of the church in his affidavit.
“If they were armed to their teeth, surely the arresting officers would have identified them,” Pillay said.
Pillay found that the state alment so failed to prove that the accused had common purpose of attacking the IPHC headquarters.
“The firearms recovered from accused 1 to 18 were never used in the shooting, it is clear. If the accused shared a common intent, at the stage where the BMW M5 stopped and met with the Toyota Quantum, the distribution of firearms among the alleged assailants that were there could have taken place.
“This would have meant that the accused would have arrived at the church fully armed in actual possession of these firearms.
“With the evidence before the court currently, I find it difficult to accept that common purpose can be established through the conduct of the accused 1 to 18,” Pillay said.
Maditse’s inability to explain why there were more spent cartridges inside the church than outside during his evidence did not help the state’s case.
Pillay also cast doubt on how the state could accept that one witness was able to positively identify 20 people in a chaotic scene where there is a shooting.
All the accused are not allowed to go to the IPHC Zuurbekom headquarters.
They cannot have any contact with any of the state’s witnesses and those with passports had to hand them over to the police immediately. The matter will be back in the same court on November 27.