By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The case against three men believed to be behind the Lusikisiki massacre in which 18 people were gunned down on September 28 has been postponed to November 26.
Aphiwe Ndende (Accused 2), Lwando Anthony Abi (Accused 3), and Bongo Hintsa (Accused 4) – made their first appearance in the Lusikisiki Magistrate’s Court.
The suspects were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.
During the proceedings, all suspects chose to be represented by Legal Aid and also abandoned their bail applications.
Ndende revealed that, although he has no prior convictions, he was out on bail in 2022.
He failed to attend his court appearance at the Flagstaff Magistrate’s Court after relocating. He had been charged with murder at the time.
The suspect confirmed that the murder case was on trial and that he has no other pending cases.
Abi disclosed that he has a prior conviction for attempted murder, handed down by the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court in 2012.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but served seven. He currently has no pending cases.
Hintsa, on the other hand, has a 2019 conviction for drug possession.
He was sentenced to three years by the Flagstaff Magistrate’s Court, but the sentence was suspended on the condition that he does not commit a similar offence.
“There is no pending matter, however, there are cases that were provisionally withdrawn then I was told that when the complainants show interest in the case [they] will be informed to go attend the case.”
The state is yet to charge the fourth suspect.
Their lawyer confirmed that “my instructions are to abandon bail in this case for now by all the three accused persons”.
The prosecutor requested that the case be postponed to 26 November for further investigations.
Magistrate Williams postponed the matter for further investigations.
“The matter has been postponed to the 26th of November 2024 for further investigations and for accused number 1 (Siphosoxolo Myekethe) to appear with yourselves, you will remain in custody until then.”
NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said the authority is disappointed that wrongdoers are released without being fully rehabilitated.
“I think we need to appreciate the fact that they don’t want to waste the court’s time, more especially given that we were going to oppose bailing in any case.
“We believe with their history in terms of crimes that they’ve committed before, previous convictions, pending cases, one having absconded from another murder that he was out on bail on, they know that there’s no way that the court would grant them bail.”
“I think that is a Correctional Services matter, because the Correctional Services Department are the ones that are responsible for correcting the inmates, those convicts. Now when they feel that these convicts are rehabilitated, they are released, so we cannot comment on that. We think that the system by Correctional Services Department depends on how they assess that a person has been rehabilitated.
“On our side we are of course disappointed that we have to deal with the same people all over again, because you’ll remember the previous convictions that they have were secured by the prosecution, so we were working to ensure that they are punished and they are corrected by the system. Unfortunately, they went out and committed more crimes.”
Ahead of the three suspects’ court appearance, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has arrested two more people in connection with the Lusikisiki massacre and recovered high-calibre firearms that were used in the mass killing of 18 people.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said an intelligence drive operation led to the arrests and discovery of the high-calibre firearms on Thursday evening.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that the firearms were moved to another location after the killing of the Lusikisiki eighteen. Two more suspects have been arrested after they were found to have these rifles. The pair was arrested in Flagstaff in the Eastern Cape.”
Mathe said weapons have been sent for testing.
“The high calibre firearms have been taken in for ballistics testing to determine and confirm that they were indeed used in the commission of the crime and to determine which other crime scenes can be linked to them.”
On September 28, a group of armed assailants stormed two neighbouring homesteads in Ngobozana village, close to Lusikisiki, and opened fire.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 18 individuals, with five others sustaining injuries.
The first suspect, Myekethe, was apprehended on 7 October in connection with the murders.
Myekethe has already appeared in the Lusikisiki Magistrate’s Court, facing 18 counts of murder and one charge of possessing an unlicensed AK-47 assault rifle.