Cape Town - Four men on trial for throwing human waste on the steps of the provincial legislature say the case against them is politically motivated and the provincial government and police set out to “trump up” charges against them.
On Tuesday, struggle songs and vuvuzelas resonated through the corridors of the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court as a large group of Ses’Khona People’s Rights Movement members sang, danced and ululated for hours in the street.
In the dock of court 20, Andile Lili, Loyiso Nkohla, Thembela Mbanjwa and Songezo Mvandaba appeared on charges of contravening various sections of the National Environment Management: Waste Act. They have pleaded not guilty and are accused of emptying buckets of human faeces on the steps outside the provincial legislature in Wale Street on June 3 last year.
Police constable Mxolisi Mdodi, who took statements from them, was in the witness stand.
Duncan Korabie, for the men was cross-examining Mdodi and questioned the credibility of those statements.
He argued that Mdodi’s warning statements were defective, that certain sections of his clients’ affidavits had been deleted, some were incomplete and not commissioned properly or not signed by a commissioner of oaths.
Korabie argued that the police and members of the provincial legislature “bolstered a case against the accused”.
Mdodi denied bolstering any case, saying he took down the relevant facts.
“And then you used that information with the assistance of the provincial government to pursue a political prosecution,” Korabie said adding that that was why the investigation was done “quickly and in a “haphazard way”. Mdodi said he had followed correct procedures.
Korabie later put it to Mdodi that the reason they had all the problems with the statements was because he and the provincial government tried to “trump up” charges against his clients.
The trial continues.
Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday Lili, Nkohla and 22 other Ses’Khona People’s Rights Movement members declared victory on the steps of the Western Cape High Court where an application brought by the City of Cape Town preventing them staging illegal protests, was dismissed.
Earlier this year the city launched the high court application alleging that Lili and Nkohla, along with 22 others, had prominent roles in a series of protests last year.
The city said on Tuesday it would be studying the judgment “to determine whether further remedies should be pursued”.
“Ses’Khona should not be celebrating this short-lived victory,” it said.
“There are multiple cases pending against this organisation, which are all of a serious nature. We will continue to uphold the rule of law and to hold Ses’Khona accountable, and today’s verdict has no bearing on these separate matters.”
natasha.prince@inl.co.za
- Cape Argus
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