Wonder Hlongwa
The investigative task unit head, Bushy Engelbrecht, this week applied to have part of Sifiso Nkabinde’s trial held in camera.
Engelbrecht said six witnesses fear that if their identities become known in the course of testifying against Nkabinde in an open court, their lives will be in danger.
The former African National Congress strongman was arrested last September and charged with 16 counts of murder and two of incitement to murder. His trial in the Pietermaritzburg High Court began this week.
The six witnesses, all from Richmond, refused to be placed in the witness protection programme because they did not want to leave their families.
Nkabinde’s lawyer, Shane Mathews, SC, said he will oppose Engelbrecht’s application. “We don’t want secret trials. Justice must be seen to be done.”
Mathews said Engelbrecht had no right to remove Nkabinde’s family, the media and other people from the court. “People are entitled to be present, to listen and to see.”
Despite numerous insults and scuffles outside the court between supporters of the United Democratic Movement and the ANC, the situation has been calm in Richmond.
Nkabinde is denying all the charges against him, including conspiring with or commanding self-defence unit members to kill 16 people in Richmond between October 1993 and July 1997.
State attorney Chris de Klerk said the state is not alleging Nkabinde was physically involved in the murders. Ballistics would show that similar firearms were used in different attacks.