Staff Reporter.
One of the men accused of the Nomzamo tarven massacre in Soweto was granted bail of R35 000 by the Johannesburg margistrate court.
Magistrate AW Morton granted bail to a former Hawks commander who has also been charged with murder.
Sixteen patrons were murdered when heavily armed men stormed into the Mdlalose Tavern in July last year.
It is claimed that the shooting was due to a rivalry between two burial societies for miners, many from Lesotho.
But the State believes that the groups are actually illegal miners and that the former cop is a leader of the group that launched an attack that resulted in the massacre.
The State has used the Prevention of Organised Crime Act to argue that the former Hawks commander, who cannot be named due to a court order, acted as part of a gang with the common purpose to kill in July last year.
But Morton is not convinced and said that the State would have a tough time proving that the accused acted in common purpose.
He also pointed out how the applicant was a secretary of a burial society called Terene ea Khosi Chakela, which has 900,000 members.
Morton said that the applicant could not take the fall for the crimes of his members just because he was their leader.
The applicant has been granted R35,000 bail and would return to the Orlando Magistrates Court in June.