JOHANNESBURG – There were no exceptional circumstances to justify the granting of bail to the accused in rightwinger Eugene Terre’Blanche’s murder trial, the State said yesterday in a bid to have it set aside.
National Prosecuting Authority advocate George Baloyi said the Ventersdorp magistrate’s finding that there were exceptional circumstances for the granting of bail to Chris Mahlangu, 28, simply because he reported the murder to the police, was wrong.
‘He should never have been granted bail. Any criminal who commits a crime can go report the matter to the police station, there’s nothing exceptional about that,’ Baloyi told the High Court in Pretoria.
He said that ‘exceptional’ applied to something ‘unique’ and would be relevant if there was a lack of evidence or if someone was terminally ill.
He submitted that Mahlangu also failed to demonstrate that he would be acquitted in trial because he never took the stand but merely handed over two affidavits which were not properly commissioned.
‘Substance rather than form is important,’ said Baloyi, adding that the defence had also failed to provide further details of circumstances leading to the killing of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Terre’Blanche in April on his farm outside Ventersdorp.
‘It was wrong for the magistrate to say the defence was likely to succeed,’ he said.
Mahlangu and a minor who cannot be named are accused of hacking Terre’Blanche to death.
Mahlangu was granted R500 bail by the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court on July 14.
The trial would start on November 22. – Nampa-Sapa
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