Two members of the Delicious Rugby Club in the Boland, who allegedly rendered an opposing player unconscious in an on-field brawl, appeared on Tuesday in the Worcester Regional Court on charges of culpable homicide.
Ben Zimry and Wayne Matthee were not asked to plead when they appeared before magistrate PJ van Rensburg, who postponed the case to May 15 pending the outcome of representations to the Western Cape Directorate for Public Prosecutions (DPP) for the withdrawal of the charges.
Their lawyers, Nehemiah Ballem and Martin Green, said a four-month postponement was needed for the DPP to ”diligently consider” whether the grounds for the withdrawal of the charges have merit. Prosecutor Neville Simpson told the court the state was ready to schedule the trial date, but still needed to obtain from the Boland Rugby Club a transcription of the record of the recent disciplinary hearing involving Zimry.
It is alleged that Zimry and Matthee attacked Rawsonville Rugby Club member Riaan Loots during a match in June last year.
Some days after the alleged brawl, Loots was declared brain dead, and his life-support mechanism in hospital was switched off.
Because of the alleged incident, the Boland Rugby Union imposed a suspended three-month expulsion on the Delicious Rugby Club from all competitions and banned Zimry for life from all rugby related activities. — Sapa