Six men arrested for dumping bodies on Monwabisi beach during the Covid-19 lockdown are yet to go on trial. File image.
- A group of men arrested during Covid-19 for allegedly dumping bodies are yet to go on trial.
- At best, their trial could start next year.
- They were arrested after a lone bakkie was spotted on the Strandfontein dunes.
Six men arrested for dumping bodies on Monwabisi beach during the Covid-19 lockdown are yet to go on trial due to the Western Cape High Court backlog.
The City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement Marine Unit spotted the men while patrolling the streets of a society hunkering down indoors amid a worldwide outbreak of the deadly virus.
At the time, strict curfews limited movement to essential business and food shopping, and banned anyone from being on the beach.
The officers saw a bakkie parked on the Strandfontein dunes on a poorly lit strip of coast, where bodies had periodically been discovered.
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They monitored for a while, and then approached the bakkie cautiously.
They found three bodies covered in bullet and stab wounds and wrapped in blankets.
The police suspect the group may have been preparing to throw the bodies into the sea.
Later, police found a second scene on Da Gama Street, in Eerste River, the possible site of the murders.
Angelo Beukes, Lee Daniels, Charl Kruger, Mfuniseli Mkehle, Desmond Rustin and Gert Adams are all in custody awaiting trial.
The trial date was supposed to be set on Friday – but, due to another pressing engagement by one of the defence lawyers, it was postponed to 18 August.
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Judge Hayley Slingers warned the defence to make arrangements for a court date that suited everybody’s diaries.
She said:
We are already in 2024… we are going to be looking further down the line.
It echoed warnings by Judges Robert Henney and Nathan Erasmus, who had already stated there were 200 cases awaiting a court for a trial to be held in.
The Western Cape High Court may have enough courtrooms for civil cases – but, for criminal cases, it needs an adjoining or basement holding cell for safety reasons. There are very few of these in the court.
The alternative is for the accused to traipse a long distance through the public corridors, which lead to courts in the annexes.
The court only has 31 judges and seven acting judges, many of whom are already in the middle of older trials.
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