Rehana Rossouw
MURDER-accused Allan Stokes was 369 miles from Cape Town on Wednesday aboard the monohull Sunday Star, participating in the Cape-to-Rio race after a court postponed his trial to April 5 to accommodate his racing plans.
Stokes is accused of murdering trainee diplomat Nithianandan “Elvis” Govender at the Vaal Dam last November. Govender’s family is concerned that because Stokes’ passport was not confiscated, he could disembark at Rio in two weeks’ time and decide not to return to face the charges.
They have written to Justice Minister Dullah Omar to ask him to investigate the circumstances in which Allan Stokes was allowed to leave the country last Saturday and be released without bail.
“We find it outrageous that he’s gone off to Rio. What guarantees do we have that he’ll come back? His passport wasn’t even confiscated and he has left no forwarding address. All of this does not say much for the justice system in this country,” said Elvis’ brother Anand Govender.
Anand Govender said that should the Ministry of Justice not intervene, the family would investigate appealing to the Constitutional Court for redress. “If we can prove that Stokes was given extremely lenient treatment, we are going to demand that he be extradited
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice confirmed receipt of the family’s letter and said they were investigating the matter. Once all the information regarding the case was available, they would respond to the family.
Govender’s fianc,, London-based Roslyn Perkins, wrote to the race organisers asking them to withdraw Stokes from the race.
“The race has been used as an excuse to delay justice as the court process was rescheduled to fit around the Cape-to-Rio race. For the family and myself this causes much additional pain and makes our grief more intense and drawn out,” Perkins wrote in a letter addressed to the Commodore of the Royal Cape Yacht Club.
Last week a race spokesman told the Mail & Guardian that they could only act against Stokes if they received written protests about his participation. But although the race organisers received Perkins’ letter before the start of the race, they did nothing to prevent Stokes from leaving for Rio. Despite numerous attempts to ascertain why, race organisers did not return calls from the M&G this week.
Race general manager Martin Fine wrote back to Perkins saying there was nothing they could do to stop Stokes from participating as the matter lay in the hands of the South African judiciary.
“I am not going to let them get away with it. Elvis did his bit for his country and I agreed that all human beings should be treated equally. I am convinced that if Stokes were black he would have been left in jail until his next court appearance,” said Perkins.
A lawyer acting on behalf of the Govender family, Anton Steenkamp, said a letter from the prosecutor which arrived this week, said the investigation into Govender’s murder was not yet completed. “It seems very strange to us that they would let the only suspect out of the country if they have not finalised the investigation,” said Steenkamp.