102 people convicted in attacks on foreigners in seven years

AT LEAST 102 people were convicted of attacks arising from xenophobic violence this year and in 2008.

Statistics on the prosecutions and convictions arising from such cases were handed to Parliament yesterday by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha in response to a question by the DA.

The cases arose from the violent attacks against foreigners in 2008 and this year.

On the attacks which started in May 2008, the Department of Justice recorded arrests in 597 cases.

Ultimately, those matters resulted in at least 98 people being convicted.

The statistics which the minister provided were for the number of cases, not the number of people prosecuted.

“To monitor what happened to these cases, an investigation at the end of October 2009 revealed that 218 of these cases were withdrawn (for various reasons, but in many instances because the witnesses were missing or left the country), 159 of these cases were finalised with a verdict (98 guilty, 61 not guilty), nine cases were still partly heard, 75 cases were still to be tried, and in 77 cases, further investigation was still being finalised, while 27 warrants of arrest were also issued,” Masutha said.

“These matters were part of the normal court rolls at that stage and no further specific monitoring records were kept in relation to these matters.”

The 597 cases included:

● 112 of public violence; ● 107 of housebreaking; ● 96 of attempted murder and/ or robbery; ● 62 of murder and/or attempted murder; ● 58 of theft; ● 36 of malicious damage to property; ● 31 of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm; ● 22 of intimidation; ● 22 of armed robbery; ● 11 of house robbery; ● 9 of arson; ● 8 of rape or attempted rape; ● 6 of business robbery; ● 17 cases of other crimes.

Arising from this year’s outbreak of violence, Masutha said that by the end of last month, there were 110 cases.

Six cases had been finalised, with four convictions, one decision not to prosecute and one finalised through mediation.

Seven cases were withdrawn or struck off the roll and 97 were not finalised. The other 97 cases were continuing.

The minister said there was limited statistical information on these cases.

“The reason for this is that there is no specific crime category prosecuted or recorded in official databases relating to ‘violent xenophobic attacks’. Crimes committed in this regard are, therefore, usually assaults or murders where the victims are foreign nationals.

“These cases are thus recorded as crimes in terms of the SAPS’s case system and the court registers,” Masutha explained.

“Limited manual recording of such incidents and cases was dealt with during 2008,” he noted.

“During 2015, more-detailed statistics were captured by the police and the National Prosecuting Authority under the auspices of the justice, crime prevention and security cluster and its subcommittee, which is reported through the inter-ministerial committee dealing with migration issues.”

The Department of Justice and Correctional Services was unable to give further details on the cases yesterday.

A total of 597 cases were heard by the courts