Lawyer of arrested zama zama kingpins says State is playing games

The lawyer representing the six alleged zama zama kingpins believes the state is “playing games” after it refused to entertain his client’s bail application yesterday.

The state argued that the matter had not been scheduled for bail application and they would be ready to proceed with the matter in two weeks.

State prosecutor Asanda Nombewu said there were a lot of other bail applications they needed to deal with next week.

“The court would know that there are a lot of other bail applications that were congested from the 10th to the 14th to accommodate the accused that were already arrested.

It would not be fair or be in the interest of justice to pass those accused and fix this new bail application to accommodate these six accused.”

Advocate Mulalo Lifhiga, for the defence, said, based on the two weeks postponement, he can say the state is playing games.

“The two weeks postponement is like a punishment, in terms of the law. You cannot use bail as a punishment at all,” Lifhiga said.

“It cannot be in the interest of justice to do that. A bail application on its own is an urgent application. You cannot be in the queue as if you are at a Sassa paying point.

“They say charges are serious and I don’t think that is one of the reasons why people cannot get bail.

If a person qualifies, whether the matter is serious or not, what is important is that the person will stand trial until it is concluded,” he said.

Lifhiga argued the offence against his clients were not under any schedule, but conceded that the offences were serious.

He said the reason advanced by the state to oppose the hearing of the bail application did not hold water.

“It is common cause that the accused were arrested at their respective homes, in front of their wives or partners and their children. This then means the issue of address verification is out.

If the state is alleging that they still want to verify their status, one has to ask then why was home affairs there when they were arrested, because they are not arresting officers?”

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