Insurrection: Magistrates label investigations ‘shoddy and incomplete’

Police are struggling to successfully link incitement suspects to the KwaZulu-Natal unrest that spread to parts of Gauteng last month. 

Shoddy and incomplete investigations are making it difficult for state prosecutors to even oppose bail this early in the investigations.

So far, two magistrates from the Randburg and Roodepoort magistrate’s courts called into question the strength of the state’s cases against two people believed to have incited the riots that devastated the country.

The courts found the investigations were incomplete or “not as sharp as hoped for” in both cases.

To date, only four people have been formally charged with inciting the violence, despite earlier assertions from the presidency that six were arrested.

ANC West Rand councillor Clarence Tabane, former uKhozi FM DJ Ngizwe Mchunu, Patriotic Alliance West Rand mayoral candidate Bruce Nimmerhoudt, and Rand West Municipality employee Sibusiso Mavuso have all been released on bail ranging between R2 000 and R5 000.

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A total of 683 people face prosecution for various crimes, including public violence, theft, malicious injury to property, the contravention of Covid lockdown regulations, housebreaking with intent to commit an offence, and robbery. Of them, 587 are from the West Rand district alone.

Only one arrest related to looting has been made in Durban.

The 30-year-old Mbuso Moloi, caught on camera stealing from a Glenwood Woolworths and making off in a silver Mercedes-Benz, is expected to apply for bail this week.

After the unrest, Police Minister Bheki Cele appointed a special task team comprising ten members to probe suspected acts of vigilantism and gang links connected with the Phoenix mass murders. More than 20 people, mostly black, are believed to have been killed in a suspected offensive attack during the chaos.

Five people were charged with murder and attempted murder. Murder-accused Dylan Govender, Ned Govender and Jeetendra Jaikissoon are expected to apply for bail tomorrow. Suspects Owen Chinnasamy and Seelan Chetty, charged with three counts of at- tempted murder and malicious injury to property, will apply for bail on Wednesday.

Five more people are also scheduled to appear in court this week on charges of possessing illegal firearms, ammunition, and stolen goods.

But the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure has yet to make any arrests of high-profile ANC members implicated in the planning of the destruction.

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Two days into the unrest, State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said authorities were investigating former state security employees linked to former president Jacob Zuma and certain senior members of the ANC believed to be the ringleaders of the pro-Zuma anarchy.

Among the suspects are Zuma’s children, Edward, Duduzane and his twin Duduzile Zuma-Sambud- la. The Democratic Alliance has pressed criminal charges against the siblings for encouraging the looting and Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema for inciting violence.

The majority of ANC-KZN members remain loyal to Zuma. Several members of the Radical Economic Transformation faction reportedly encouraged the anarchy in WhatsApp groups.

City Press identified them as KZN ANC employee Mbali Ncube, ANCYL’s Sanele Masuku, ANC eThekweni secretary Zinhle Zee and ANC member Lindani Sosibo.