The regional court was busy with many cases that were scheduled for the day such as attempted murder, assault and damage to property as well rape.
Friday November 4 was busy for the Regional court at the Witbank Magistrates Court. The day started with several postponements. Some were for legitimate reasons such as further consulting because more charges were brought against the accused, others were less understandable.
In this case the defence attorney was not present at his own client’s case and sent a surrogate in his place that seemed to have been ill informed about the details of the case. The magistrate had little patience for this and warned the accused to be ready for his next court appearance in a few weeks’ time.
One of the trials that were concluded was a case of attempted murder where three brothers stood accused after allegedly stabbing a man many times. The incident apparently occurred as a culmination of bad blood between the men. The accused who stood trial that day testified that it was self defence and that he did not stab the complainant more than eight times to get away. This was after he sustained several bad stab wounds on the back of his neck and head. However the medical report revealed that the complainant had been stabbed dozens of times. The accused stuck to his testimony that there were other people in the tavern where the fight broke out and he does not know what happened after he ran away.
Ultimately the accused was acquitted due to lack of concrete evidence proving his guilt beyond a doubt. The accused had two brothers who were also charged for their involvement but ultimately did not stand trial either for not actually stabbing the victim at all. His case is another example that in reality is not always clear cut.
Many of the people that appeared are still incarcerated. The process of applying for bail runs through a different court than the one they appeared in for their trial. One case the suspect had his bail application in Court B the same morning of his initial appearance in the regional court.
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