EMSIE FERREIRA AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday
THE leader of the Muslim vigilante group Pagad has been charged with terrorism for allegedly orchestrating a spate of bombings in outlying areas of Cape Town in 1997 and 1998.
State prosecutor Willie Viljoen said Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim stands accused of ordering fellow members of Pagad to manufacture bombs and use them in terror attacks. The bombings took place between 1997 and 1998, he said.
It marks the first time a member of the high command of the People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) has been charged in relation to bombings.
The government in August branded the movement “a terrorist threat” and blamed it for a wave of blasts in the heart of Cape Town. However, in spite of blaming Pagad for the blasts, authorities have so far failed to secure a single conviction for the bombings.
The bombing campaign for which Ebrahim has been charged began in 1996 in outlying suburbs, in which there have so far been more than 160 pipe bomb attacks. Since June 1998, a further 20 bombs have exploded in city centre, killing three people and injuring 131.
The new charges were brought a day after another Pagad member, Ismail Edwards, was jailed for 25 years for attempted murder and robbery.
More than 40 Pagad members have been charged with serious crimes but the state has admitted that it is struggling to secure convictions for lack of evidence. The same magistrate who sentenced Edwards this week dismissed explosives charges against two Pagad members and lashed out at the police for bungling the three-year investigation against the men.
The charge is one of seven new ones added to 19 already on Ebrahim’s rap sheet, including the gruesome 1996 murder of one of Cape Town’s best-known gang bosses, Rashaad Staggie. Ebrahim has been in detention awaiting trial since December.
In other affidavits before the court, it is alleged that members of Pagad used cell phones to detonate bombs from inside prison.