The Sowetan trio accused of murdering Dr Nicholas Proctor seven months ago briefly appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court this morning, August 29.
Accused one and two, Bheki Ndlovu (38) and Nkateko Tshidzumba (24), appeared virtually via the court’s AVR system, while accused number three, Siyabonga Kekana (20), was present in the dock.
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The men, who all hail from Protea Glen near Soweto, face a raft of serious charges, including murder (a schedule 6 offence), kidnapping, robbery with aggravated circumstances, theft and attempted theft.
The matter was once again postponed, this time to September 27, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to determine whether the case would proceed to the regional or the high court for trial. The State is also still waiting for the DNA report to be finalised before it can proceed further.
In an attempt to deny further postponement or at least mark this postponement as final, the defence argued that bail needs to be considered for the accused as the investigation is ‘clearly not finalised’ and the accused’s ‘lives are on hold’.
A well-placed criminal justice insider explained in terms of case flow management that a case should not stay on the roll for longer than nine months for investigations, and having been on the roll for nearly seven months, this case was just about there.
With murder being a schedule 6 offence, the onus is on the defence to prove exceptional circumstances to warrant bail. In this case, bail was denied on February 23 due to the gravity of the charges and the lack of exceptional circumstances.
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“[However,] bail has many considerations, one of which is the strength of the State’s case. Exceptional circumstances can be a singular circumstance or it could be cumulative circumstances,” the source said.
Due to his young age, Kekana is kept at the Barberton Correctional Services, while his co-accused are kept at the Mbombela Correctional Services.
