POLOKWANE – Widespread confusion was caused by a “rent-a-crowd” sporting ANC colours outside the Polokwane magistrate’s court on Tuesday when the bail application of Rameez Patel (29) continued.
Patel is accused of murdering his wife, Fatima (28) in their home in Nirvana last month.
While ANCYL members showed their disapproval of abuse against women and children and disapproved of Patel being granted bail, the opposing group claiming to be ANC members pledged their support to the accused.
Both ANC provincial spokesperson, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and ANCYL provincial spokesperson, Kgopelo Phasha, said none of the people supporting Patel were members of the ANC or the ANCYL.
“We were told that these people were from Thohoyandou, but our members from any ANC branch would never support anyone accused of murdering a woman,” Ntshavheni said, adding that ANC T-shirts and caps were often distributed free to anyone.
The police were called in to restore calm and order between the opposing groups, and the crowd was later requested to stop chanting as court proceedings were being disrupted.
Meanwhile, in the packed courtroom, Patel was represented by a new advocate, Tumi Mokwena, who is also Julius Malema’s legal representative.
The first and only person to testify was Dr Thakondi Arnold Mamashela, the pathologist who did the post mortem on Fatima, testified that rigor mortis was already at an advanced state when he did the post mortem at 22:30 on the night of April 10, when she was murdered.
He said the estimated time of Fatima’s death was in the region of six hours before 21:00.
Mamashela said Fatima could have died as a result of any three causes, or a combination of them. He listed the three causes as compression of the neck (strangulation), facial injuries caused by a blunt object and a gunshot.
Following a lot of discussion over the admissibility of Mamashela’s testimony as well as the date to which the bail hearing would be postponed, magistrate Mohamed Shaik postponed the bail hearing to May 20 and 21, to be finalised.
