*A substantial amount of detail has been left out of this article to protect the family,in particular the two minors.
A Helderkruin couple, whose eight-year-old daughter passed an innocent and accidental comment about her dad’s dagga plants, are now in a curious position. They are aware of an offence being committed, but are powerless to do anything about it.
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As this is the woman’s second marriage, her two daughters, aged 8 and 13, visit their biological father every second weekend. At about the end of January the younger one mentioned in a conversation that her father was “growing plants”. At first her mother and stepfather did not take much notice of the comment but later they began to wonder. They then instructed the older daughter to take a photo on the sly at her next visit, which she did. The photo revealed rows of baby dagga plants in plant pots. (The plants are now allegedly about a metre high). The stepfather immediately alerted the local Community Policing Forum (CPF) who in turn escalated the matter to the police. But in order to investigate, the police needed a search warrant.
Also read: You can use dagga at home, rules WC high court
The captain intending to investigate the matter applied for a warrant at the District Magistrate’s Court, but the magistrate denied his application, in spite of the evidence provided by the photograph, which is now in the Record’s possession. A second application was made and again denied. The last application was denied because the complaint comes from the offender’s ex-wife and her current husband.
“I think even the captain has given up, his good intentions notwithstanding,” said the stepfather.
The Record spoke to a prominent person in the local justice fraternity who said the magistrate’s reason for denying the application was ridiculous but followed the trend. “The denial of both search and arrest warrant applications is really prevalent, and this makes the jobs of both the police and the regional courts difficult. The terrible thing is that it unfortunately also applies to dangerous criminals and crimes where district magistrates just flatly refuse to grant warrants in many cases. There are dangerous criminals such as rapists walking the streets and the police’s hands are tied. They know where these suspects are but cannot arrest them,” he said.
At the time of publication of this article, the police have yet to obtain a search warrant.
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