The ”blue light” VIP security escort who allegedly fired twice at a vehicle on the Pietermaritzburg-Durban highway, South African Police Service Constable Hlanganani Khumalo (28), was on Friday granted bail of R3Â 500 by Pietermaritzburg Judge Isaac Madondo.
Madondo set side the refusal of bail by Camperdown magistrate Thys Taljaard on November 19.
Khumalo has been charged with eight counts of attempted murder and malicious injury to property, the state alleging that the driver of the car fired upon lost control, the vehicle crossed the median and crashed head-on with a bakkie travelling in the opposite direction.
Eight occupants of the bakkie were injured and taken to hospital, treated and discharged on the same night as the incident.
In the Camperdown bail application, there was no evidence that any of the injured sustained grievous bodily injury as was legally required for attempted murder.
The application had been dealt with on the wrong footing and should have been dealt with under a schedule that required the state to show that it was in the interests of justice that he should not be released on bail. The magistrate had wrongly found that Khumalo had to discharge the onus of showing that it was in the interests of justice that he be given bail.
Advocate Louis Barnard, who appeared for Khumalo, said that the magistrate had erred in taking into account the antics and the modus operandi of the ”blue light gang of KwaZulu-Natal” — the police escorts of provincial ministers whose alleged bullying of motorists has incurred much wrath — when no such evidence was given in the bail application.
Khumalo has no previous convictions, he has no pending cases against him, is gainfully employed, lives in police barracks in Pietermaritzburg, has two minor children and surrendered himself to the police.
State advocate Denardo MacDonald opposed the appeal against the refusal of bail, saying that such incidents induced shock and outrage as they were perpetrated without just cause by a member of the SAPS, who had sworn to protect the public.
Madondo said that Khumalo had met the requirements for bail to be granted.
No information could be obtained as to whether the driver of the escort car, in which Khumalo was a passenger, would be charged with any offence.
He left the scene of the incident without inquiring about those injured.
At the time he was hurrying to pick up a provincial minister. — Sapa