Eighty seven people, most of them pensioners, who were arrested during a protest outside the home of the Johannesburg mayor last year, were acquitted on charges of public violence by the Jeppe Regional Court on Wednesday.
Magistrate Naomi Engelbrecht said the evidence presented by the State had failed to identify who had performed what act at the protest and who had caused damage of R16 000 at the Kensington home of mayor Amos Masondo on April 6.
The state had also failed to show that the protesters acted with common purpose to commit public violence and disturb the peace. About 200 protesters arrived outside Masondo’s home to deliver a memorandum protesting electricity and service cuts in the areas where they lived.
The court found that all the protesters were dressed in similar red T-shirts and were present in the vicinity when the damage was caused to Masondo’s home. Engelbrecht said the court, however, had no evidence as to who had remained on the buses on which they had arrived and who had committed what act, or whether the group had set out with a common goal and had intended carrying out various acts to further that goal.
When police arrived they arrested all the protesters in the area as well as those who later proceeded to the police station. The 87 pleaded not guilty when they went on trial. After delivering her judgment, Engelbrecht told the accused that action groups were often effective, there were other avenues open to resolving grievances.
A few individuals who were absent on Wednesday would be dealt with separately, the magistrate said. At the end of the State’s case, defence attorney Steve Tuson of
the Wits Law Clinic had argued for discharge of all the accused.
The delighted accused mobbed Tuson to express their gratitude as they left the court on Wednesday and sympathisers toyi-toyied outside the court in support. – Sapa