/ 26 April 2006

Laundry murder victims may still be exhumed

The bodies of three murdered laundry workers may still be exhumed as part of further investigation into the case, police said on Wednesday.

Vaal police spokesperson Superintendent Maria Mazibuko said that pending forensic investigations, the application may still go ahead.

”The issue of exhumation is not yet kicked out. We are currently waiting for the outcome of forensics and should it direct us to the exhumation part of it; then we will do it that way,” she said.

The bodies of Jocelyn Lesito, Constance Moeletsi and Victoria Ndweni were found in laundry bins at Protea Dry Cleaners in Vereeniging in January this year.

On Monday, the case against six people accused of murdering the women was struck off the roll due to insufficient evidence.

At a previous hearing the state told the court it hoped to have the bodies exhumed to gather more evidence to strengthen its case.

During Monday’s ruling, magistrate W Ewart said the case had turned into a ”total debacle” and advised police to go back to the drawing board and do a proper job.

Mazibuko denied any negligence on the part of police. ”We did what we were supposed to do up until now, and we are going to continue with investigations on this case.”

If the court feels there is anything still outstanding, police will work on that.

Mazibuko said police are still focusing on the original accused.

Charl Colyn, owner of the dry cleaners; his daughter Isabel; Jacques Smit; Ruan Swanepoel; Jacob Dlamini; and Samuel Mzizi were charged with the murders.

It was alleged the women were strangled, put in industrial washing machines and their bodies dumped in laundry bins, after a labour dispute with the Colyns.

But evidence and a post mortem could not support this claim, which arose in a confession allegedly forced out of Dlamini.

Mazibuko would not say what the post mortem detailed the cause of death as being, as it would hamper investigation efforts.

A public outcry arose when the case was struck off the roll. The victims’ families and the community believe the decision was influenced by racism.

The South African Communist Party said on Tuesday it was deeply disturbed by the magistrate’s decision, saying it reinforced the impression that black workers’ lives were cheap.

”Much as we respect the rule of law, it is disturbing that there is a continuing tendency of either light sentences or dropping of charges on matters relating to the murder of black workers in this country,” said spokesperson Malesela Maleka.

He called on the government and relevant institutions to assign senior people to this case urgently to speed up the investigation and bring the perpetrators to book. — Sapa