Cosas Four: Saps given deadline to make call on state funding for former apartheid officer

The South African Police Service (Saps) has a week and a half to make a call on whether it will be covering the legal fees of former security branch officer Christian Siebert Rorich in the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) Four case – or risk finding itself in contempt of court.

This after Johannesburg High Court Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng on Monday issued an order giving the head of the Saps legal division in Gauteng until 26 January to process and finalise Rorich’s application for a state-funded defence. If he didn’t, the judge ordered he would have to appear in court to explain the delay as well as why he should not be held in contempt.

Rorich – a former member of the security branch and bomb expert – and Tlhomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa – an askari who defected from uMkhonto we Sizwe and joined the notorious unit – made a brief appearance in the dock on Monday. The issues around Rorich’s legal representation have been ongoing since November and the judge was visibly frustrated by the continued delay. His order also came on the back of submissions from the state around the protracted nature of TRC cases such as this and the pressure the state is under to finalise them.

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Rorich and Mfalapitsa are facing various charges – including, for the first time in South Africa, crimes against humanity – in connection with the bomb that killed Eustice ‘Bimbo’ Madikela, Ntshingo Mataboge and Fanyana Nhlapo and injured Zandisile Musi (all Cosas supporters from Kagiso on the West Rand) at a pumphouse near Krugersdorp in February 1982.

The intention, it’s alleged, was to create the impression that they had blown themselves up while undergoing military training.

Rorich and Mfalapitsa stand accused of kidnapping, the crime against humanity of murder (alternatively murder) and the crime against humanity of apartheid.

They are due back in court on 31 January.

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