ACC Statement
Yesterday on 9 February, the trial against five accused for the ‘Christmas Shootings’ in Mdatya village finally started in Mbizana Regional Court. Mr Ximbi from Mthatha arrived four hours late together with two other lawyers. To whoever is paying for this mobilisation of defence for the accused, it will not be cheap.
Mr Ximbi gave “long travel” as the reason. His late arrivals or failure to pitch at all have led to postponement several times before. This time he could however not oppose the hearings from starting. They started at 2PM, instead of 9.00AM.
The shootings and attacks took place 22-30 December 2015. Some homesteads where pinpointed by the accused – like the homestead of our Headwoman, of her secretary and of late Bazooka Radebe who was murdered three months later in March 2016 by two assassins. Other community members were attacked randomly with knobkerries and drawn handguns when coming from community meetings or from a spaza shop.
The victims were simply assumed to be against mining. The Mdatya community is massively against the ‘Xolobeni Mining Project’, like the other villages on the Amadiba coast in Mbizana.
The community were sleeping in the forest during the December week in 2015, when also a R4 or R5 rifle was fired during theft. One woman gave birth in the forest. One of the four witnesses of the Prosecutor is disabled since the attack by a badly broken leg.
The five on trial are accused of attempted murder, assault with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm and theft. The trial is booked for three days.
Because of the late start, only one witness could testify during the first day and then crossexamined by Mr Ximbi. His answer to Ximbi’s question “How did you know that you were attacked because of being against mining?” was: “Because they were shouting ‘You are blocking mining’.”
The five-year delay of the prosecution of Mzamba CAS 99/12/2015 has other strange features.
As ACC, we for example note that the six-day bail hearings 4-11 January 2016 and have disappeared from Court documents. The papers say that the five accused were released with a “Warning” and not given bail! The papers also claim that the fifth accused was arrested together with the four others on 31 December 2015. This is wrong. He was officially wanted and at large for over two years, although doing his business in Mbizana as usual. He first appeared on 5 March 2018 at the first appearance of all accused, after being “sought” for over two years. When was his bail hearings?
The Mbizana Court owes the community and the public an explanation for these blatant errors in the record.
ENDS
Amadiba Crisis Committee
Spokesperson: Nonhle Mbuthuma 0763592982