The court case against five co-accused in the formal bail application in the Thabo Bester prison escape matter has been postponed to Friday, May 19.
THE COURT case against five co-accused in the formal bail application in the Thabo Bester prison escape matter has been postponed to Friday, May 19, 2023.
This is due to certain legal representatives of the accused being unavailable to attend court for the better part of this week.
The case involving Senohe Motsoara as the first applicant, Teboho Lipholo as the second applicant, Matanyane Masukela as the third applicant, Tieho Makhotsa as the fourth and Nastassja Jansen as the last bail applicant continued for its third sitting in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court.
The five co-accused are all former G4S employees who allegedly aided and abetted Bester in his escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022 after a staged fire inside Bester’s cell 35 at the prison.
Last week, during his testimony, the investigating officer, Tieho Jobo Flynman, revealed how the five former employees were roped in for their different roles and expertise to help pull off a successful prison escape.
It was the first witness and investigating officer’s third day on the stand, with legal representatives of the first two applicants getting their chance to poke holes in the investigating officer’s testimony, who still stood by his stance that the accused should not be granted bail due to the nature of the alleged crimes committed as well as community sentiments.
Arguing on behalf of his client, Motsoara, advocate Kagisho Moruri said it was not in the interest of justice for his client to be denied bail as the investigating team was still carrying out its investigation, which took more than a month to conclude.
Moruri delved deeper into the work of the investigating team, which he said, due to the fact that it was still ongoing, was jeopardising his client’s rights to bail as he should be presumed innocent until found guilty by the court of law.
“Subsequent to the arrest of applicant one for murder, did you do further investigation and determine that the murder charge would not be sustainable? You will agree that your ongoing investigation has a bearing on accused one and seven? And the serious charges of murder have been withdrawn by the State, which clears Motsoara and Tieho Makhosta of serious charges,” Moruri said.
“You say there are certain investigations you made that have cleared the accused one of murder, and he will, at the right forum, come and dispute your proposition and accusations against him,” said the lawyer.
Flynn acknowledged some of the mistakes in his testimony, including the number of times that Motsoara visited Lesotho after his passport was found with 16 stamps; it was assumed that he had visited the country eight times between October 2022 and November 2022.
“I admit that I might have made a mistake assuming that the 16 stamps on the accused passport meant he visited Lesotho eight times due to the 16 stamps. I admit that this was inaccurate and only represents four visits to Lesotho and not eight times as previously stated,” Flynman said.
However, Moruri argued that his client only visited four times as the passport is stamped twice on both entrance and exit.
On behalf of applicant three, advocate Peter Makamedi said that his client was dismissed without a disciplinary hearing.
“I put it to you that my client was not given a disciplinary hearing … You do not know that conditions can be attached to bail. You also know that a picket outside this court does not influence the court’s decision to grant bail. The court must satisfy itself with the facts of the matter,” Makamedi argued.
