Second Christmas in prison for taxi-owners

The well-known taxi-owners Samuel Matjila, Desmond Machaba and Patrick Sekhu have spent their second Christmas behind bars since their arrest in 2015 in connection with the murder of Charles Mgidi.

Samuel Matjila.

LIMPOPO – Mgidi was shot at a filling station in Mokopane on 4 April 2015 and Matjila, Machaba and Sekhu were arrested on the same day.

The three suspects were denied of bail by Magistrate Annelies Swanepoel on 17 August 2015 and since then they have tried many times to apply for bail, but to no avail. Their trial started in the Polokwane High Court in May 2016 and has been postponed on several occasions. When the three accused appear before the Polokwane High Court on 24 April, it would be two years since Mgidi’s murder.

Community activist, Percy Nketsi told Bosveld that Patrick Sekhu will again apply for bail on 11 January. However, Nketsi is of the view that justice will prevail and that Sekhu will again be denied bail as it is not in the interest of justice to release him.

Nketsi strongly concluded by saying that these suspects are exactly where they belong, in prison.