A murder suspect who threatened to kill the two witnesses to his alleged crime has been freed on bail of R500, and nobody involved in the case can explain why. Heather Hogan reports
‘It must have been a mistake,” shrugged a clerk at Botshabelo Magistrate’s Court, of the alleged murderer’s release on R500 bail. And that was about the closest to a satisfactory explanation on offer from the authorities this week in the matter of the State versus Moses Goniwe – a case which delivers a disturbing message about the delivery of law and order in South Africa’s rural areas.
It was on the night of January 10 that Jemima Nyapoli was stabbed to death with a butcher’s knife in front of her 11- year-old son, James, and her sister Mittah Nyapoli.
The man they allegedly watched carry out the attack, Goniwe, was dragged away from the scene of the crime vowing to kill Nyapoli’s entire family. Yet days later, he was released on R500 bail by the Botshabelo Magistrate’s Court, without even having given the court a permanent address.
Since then Mittah Nyapoli has been in fear of her life. “I want a protection order … please … I’m scared he will come back and kill me too,” she wept at the Botshabelo police station this week. She says the only reason Goniwe killed her sister was because Jemima Nyapoli used to try and protect Mittah Nyapoli from Goniwe when he regularly beat her.
What makes Goniwe’s release on bail even more extraordinary is that he has been charged with murder before, having served a three-month sentence before that charge was overturned.
The Mail & Guardian went to Botshabelo this week to find out why Goniwe had been let out on bail. In a series of interviews the police, prosecutors and magistrate handling the case consistently contradicted each other. None of them was able to adequately explain how they had presided over Goniwe’s release.
The dead woman’s 11-year-old son James still has nightmares after witnessing his mother’s brutal murder. He allegedly begged for her life but the killer ignored the young boy’s pleas while allegedly stabbing Jemima Nyapoli approximately 48 times. She died in the rain outside her home, wearing nothing but her underwear.
Now the Nyapoli family question how the magistrate in the case could have found legal grounds to release on bail a man who openly swore revenge against the only witnesses to a murder he is accused of committing.
Surrounded by dirt roads, Botshabelo Magistrate’s Court is a small, white, single-storey building. Outside, scores of people mill around, or queue to catch a glimpse of relatives in the stuffy holding cells where the prisoners hang through the bars and leer at passers by.
Arthur Mogaecho, Goniwe’s prosecutor, reread the papers in the Goniwe case on the request of the M&G. He was denied permission to talk to the media but Botshabelo’s senior public prosecutor, Lisa Fivaz, speaking on his behalf, claimed that the prosecution in the case had in fact opposed Goniwe’s bail application.
“The decision to grant Goniwe bail was solely Magistrate Wilmaretha le Roux’s decision after she’d heard both sides of the story. He was let out on R500 bail on condition that he does not make contact and does not visit the Nyapoli family and witnesses,” she said.
Le Roux has a different story. She says the prosecution did not object to Goniwe’s bail, so she thought everything was in order. She confirmed Goniwe had told her about a previous murder charge during his bail application.
“He told me he’d been charged with murder but that he was released after the charges were dropped in 1996,” she says. “His record says he does have a fixed address.”
The address was supposedly provided to the magistrate by the prosecution, who allegedly claimed the policeman in charge of the case, Inspector Mark Mabandla, had confirmed the address and had no objections to Goniwe’s bail.
The matter of how cheap his bail had been was completely ignored.
“If Goniwe is harassing witnesses then they must go to the police and make a statement and he can be arrested for violating his bail conditions,” the magistrate said after being told that the Nyapoli family fear for their lives. “I’m not prepared to answer questions about this case,” she concluded when pressed further.
According to the 1977 Criminal Procedure Act, Goniwe should never have been given bail. His alleged offences are schedule one crimes, and there were extenuating circumstances listed in Section 60 of the Act that should have prevented his successful bail application.
Back at Botshabelo police station, Mabandla looks through photos of Jemima Nyapoli’s dead, mutilated body. Even he is disgusted with how the case has turned out, and although he describes scenes like Jemina Nyapoli’s murder as “daily bread”, he concedes that there is often confusion among police, prosecutors and magistrates like that exhibited in this case.
In the photos, Jemina Nyapoli’s dead, vacant eyes stare off into space, blood running from her nose and mouth. Her back is littered with neat, bloody, eye-shaped wounds. Her left cheek has two large gaping holes where the knife struck her. Flesh is missing – the photos are gruesome.
“How could they let him go ? He’s a monster,” says Mittah Nyapoli as she sits in Mabandla’s office with James on her lap. She holds the boy closely and weeps.
‘I’m so scared, at 12 o’clock on Sunday night somebody came to my house and knocked for a long time. I was frightened because none of my friends would visit me after seven at night. I asked, ‘Who is it?’ Nobody answered me but the knocking carried on. I was too scared to open the door but when I started screaming for help, the knocking stopped. Nobody saw anything. I believe it was Moses. I’m sure he came back to kill me, that is why I want a protection order.”
Her young nephew stares into space trembling as his aunt describes the night his mother was murdered.
“I am the investigating officer,” says Mabandla, “but I didn’t even know Goniwe was out of prison until somebody saw him walking around and informed me. I opposed his bail strongly, yet records state I had no problem with it. I knew he had no fixed address, yet records say I confirmed one.
“At no time did prosecution consult with me on this case. I don’t even know what his bail conditions are, so even if Mittah makes a statement now, I cannot act on it. And even if I took one and handed it in, it would first have to go through the prosecutor. I have no way of knowing whether the magistrate will ever see it because it is up to the prosecutor to show it to her. At this stage, a protection order remains our only option. We will serve it on Goniwe.”
The case continues on February 28 2000.