Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
NPA studies not guilty verdict of Shakoor Roberts
THE National Prosecuting Authority has confirmed that it’s studying the “not guilty” verdict handed down to Shakoor Roberts.
Shakoor was arrested after his mother’s decomposing body was found hidden inside a dirt bin outside their home in March 2015 in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain.
Gafsa Roberts was strangled to death and had suffered blunt force trauma. She had obtained an interdict against him before her death where she claimed she had feared for her life. She had also claimed he had nearly broken her arm.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is studying the Mitchells Plain Regional Court judgment acquitting Roberts.
The NPA said it would release statement soon.
Gafsa’s daughter has written several letters to the NPA calling for the judgment made last year to be reviewed and assessed, as Shakoor had confessed to her in an audio recording.
The audio recording by relatives who were State witnesses in the case, was deemed inaudible by the court.
Magistrate Mary Jwacu ruled there was a lack of evidence and found Roberts not guilty. The trial was on the court roll for six years.
Jwacu said the State had failed to bring sufficient evidence such as proper medical reports, transcribing the audio recording of the alleged confession and reliable witnesses.
The magistrate further said that the recording was jumbled and did not make sense while being translated by the interpreter.
The recording had extracts where Shakoor is heard speaking in Afrikaans, stating he had asked his mother to recite a Muslim prayer which is performed before death, that he had killed her on a Friday, that her body was inside the house while everyone searched for her and he later placed it inside a dirt bin.
Shakoor was released after six years in Pollsmoor Prison.
Rushaana Adams, Shakoor’s sister and Gafsa’s daughter, said: “We just want justice for our mother because she did not do this to herself, to be killed so brutally and to place herself inside a dirt bin.”
“I send an email every week to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). At the end of the day, tomorrow another child can do the same to their mother, he killed my mother, there is a confession, how can he walk free? Was she not human, a citizen? Why are they not fighting for her for gender-based violence?.”
NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said: “Please note that the NPA is still studying the judgment and other relevant documentation.
“The NDPP (National Director of Public Prosecutions) is also investigating this case and the NPA will release a statement in due course.”
In a letter to the family from the head of the DPP, advocate Rodney de Kock said they were awaiting information from the Acting DPP. The Department of Justice had not responded to the Weekend Argus by deadline on how interpreters are selected and how many officials they have.