An incomplete High Court hinders Annatjie Myburgh’s murder case
On Monday morning her loved ones woke up with the expectation that the wheels of justice would start to turn.
MBOMBELA – Had the Mpumalanga High Court been functional on time, Annatjie Myburgh – a legal secretary – would have seen it function while she was still alive.
But Myburgh was kidnapped and killed 22 months ago and her alleged killers could not stand trial in the Mpumalanga High Court on Monday, because the court building will not be completed until October.
The case against Selby Mabila and Paul Mathebula was postponed for six months in a temporary High Court courtroom located in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court building.
By the time they stand trial on October 15, it will have been 26 months since she disappeared on June 15, 2016. For four days, hundreds of locals searched tirelessly for the White River resident until her body
was found. Mabile and Mathebula were arrested in the following two days.
On Monday morning her loved ones woke up with the expectation that the wheels of justice would start to turn. “Our week is here after a long wait. I hope we can close this chapter soon,” her daughter-in-law, Charmaine Myburgh said on Facebook. However, expectations were replaced with a disappointing reality when they learned of the postponement due to an overburdened court roll.
When Wendell Myburgh, Annatjie Myburgh’s husband shared the news on Facebook, friends shared their support. “How long will this still take?” asked Ria Smit. “Why must you suffer so much to find peace?” asked Annatjie Potgieter in Afrikaans.
Sources affiliated with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Department of Justice understood their frustrations, informing Lowvelder that the High Court building project’s incomplete status hampers the delivery of justice in ample court cases, including Myburgh’s one.
The Mpumalanga High Court, a building with more than 10 courtrooms, was supposed to be functional by October 2015. This would have provided residents with improved access to justice. Yet the project fell behind schedule and the building is now expected to be complete on October 3 – three years late.
Since January last year, intervention was ordered. Temporary High Courts function from the Nelspruit and Middelburg Magistrates’ Court buildings. These two single courtrooms handle both civil and criminal matters.
Case loads that would have been distributed between five to 10 courtrooms are now being handled by two overburdened courts.
Lowvelder asked the Department of Justice and the NPA whether the status quo was affecting their abilities to perform their duties timeously. They were asked to comment on the limitations placed on access to justice by the court’s tardy construction. Representatives were also asked what additional steps would be taken to address the backlog.
NPA spokesman for Mpumalanga, Monica Nyuswa said that courts were often overrun, resulting in a knock-on effect and that the completion of the High Court would ease the load. She felt, however, that the Mbombela and Middelburg temporary courts could cope with the case loads.
No response was received from the Department of Justice.
