Businessman Dennis Modika, who defrauded the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) of more than R5 million from the Covid-19 temporary employee relief scheme (TERS) was found guilty by the Johannesburg specialised commercial crimes court on Monday.
Lawyers for convicted rapist and murderer Brannon Jonathan Petersen will invoke section 342(A) of the Criminal Procedure Act in the wake of persistent delays in his bid for parole since he became eligible in 2015.
Petersen was handed an indeterminate sentence and declared a dangerous criminal in terms of section 286A of the Act, after being found guilty of attempted rape, rape and murder in 1998.
His sentence was meant to be reviewed after 17 years in 2015. But, after serving 25 years in prison, Petersen’s sentence remains undetermined despite a seven-year court process which was, according to the supreme court of appeal (SCA) marred by “glaring irregularities”.
On Tuesday Petersen’s lawyer, advocate Susanna Kuun from Legal Aid SA, told the Western Cape high court that the defence would submit an application in terms of section 342(A) of the Act, “which deals with unreasonable delays in cases”.
A section 342(A) application is aligned with section 35 of the Constitution, which states that every accused person has the right to a fair trial.
In March, the SCA upheld an appeal by Petersen against a high court order imposing a further five-year sentence in August 2019.
In that ruling, then Western Cape judge president John Hlophe said: “You shall be detained further in terms of section 286 of the Criminal Procedure Act for a further period of five years. You will come back to me. I will still be sitting in this seat, I will not have retired by then. You will come back to me on 29 August 2024. It will be a Thursday exactly as it is today.”
Hlophe was suspended pending a parliamentary impeachment process after the Judicial Service Commission found him guilty of serious misconduct in matters unrelated to the Petersen case in April 2021.
During Petersen’s appeal, the SCA found that “throughout the hearing [the defence] had been admonished and berated for wasting the court’s time and made to believe that any attempts to place a contrary view to that of the state was a futile exercise.
“There can be no doubt that immediately after the state witnesses had testified, counsel was called upon to argue without calling for evidence from the appellant,” Justice Caroline Nicholls ruled in March.
In addition, “several glaring irregularities” with the high court’s procedure were found. The SCA ruled that the high court had failed to consider whether Petersen was still a dangerous criminal who posed a danger to society. It also never considered Petersen’s parole board review report.
The parole board’s report on Petersen has still not been submitted to court.
Kuun also told the court that psychiatrist Dr Ashraf Jedaar had on 29 August been denied access to Goodwood prison to evaluate Petersen.
Judge Lister Nuku issued a court order compelling the correctional services department to allow Jedaar to see Petersen.
Nuku told Petersen: “Unfortunately, your matter cannot proceed today as we had hoped” before postponing the case to 11 October.