Five years later, Segone still facing a string of criminal allegations.
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Khaya Segone, the controversial ANC former speaker of the Victor Khanye local municipality in Mpumalanga, has been accused of blatantly making a mockery of the justice system and getting away with it.
More than five years after the High Court in Middelburg revoked his bail and ordered his arrest, he remains a free man.
Segone faced a raft of allegations, including claims that he led a vigilante group dubbed the “Yellow Overalls” gang, which allegedly terrorised political opponents and residents in Delmas.
The string of criminal cases ranges from public violence, kidnapping, discharging a firearm on municipal premises and incitement to commit assault and crimen injuria.
One of those allegedly attacked and pointed at with a firearm is state witness Meshack Thombeni.
“Segone’s bail was challenged by the prosecution, and it was revoked in a judgment handed down in January 2021. “The high court set aside the bail and ordered that Segone be arrested. But he has not been arrested,” said Thombeni.
The investigating officer recently informed Thombeni that he had followed up on the execution of Segone’s warrant.
“I noticed that the judge set his release on bail aside and issued the warrant for his arrest. However, the warrant for the arrest of [Segone] was apparently not executed,” the officer wrote.
The officer said the relevant criminal dockets remained active in court and Segone was still attending court.
“The officer’s advice to me was to approach the director of public prosecutions to establish what had happened to the warrant,” Thombeni said.
His attorneys approached the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in May, seeking answers about the warrant’s execution.
Letter to NPA
In a letter dated 8 May, the attorneys told the NPA their client was one of several witnesses expected to testify against Segone in the Delmas case. They said the matter had been pending for several years and raised concerns about the circumstances surrounding Segone’s bail.
The lawyers asked why the warrant has not been executed, despite a court order.
The letter also refers to a notice of application for leave to appeal which, according to Thombeni’s lawyers, was filed at the high court in Middelburg on 12 November 2021.
They asked the NPA to urgently clarify the status of that application.
Thombeni’s attorneys also raised allegations concerning the treatment of their client and his family while the case remained pending.
In their letter to the NPA, the lawyers alleged Segone and his co-accused or third parties had continued approaching Thombeni and his family members. These approaches included intimidation and threats concerning their lives and employment, they claimed.
The lawyers said Thombeni was “perplexed” by the circumstances surrounding Segone’s bail. Their client was concerned that Segone continued to present himself publicly as someone who was “untouchable and above the law”, they said.
‘Order suspended’
Monica Nyuswa, NPA spokesperson in Mpumalanga, said Segone applied for leave to appeal and that “the order was suspended and the arrest order was automatically suspended”.
She said the matter was allocated to a new legal representative, following the death of the previous one.
“The warrant could not be executed due to the pending application for leave to appeal,” she said.
‘Rented journalist’
Asked for comment, Segone said: “[I] hope you are not the rented journalist. Just in the middle of campaigns you bring that old matter that is in court” (sic) to The Citizen‘s questions.
He said that if the complainant was intimidated, he must report the case to the police and the prosecutor and bring proof.
