Cape Town - Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu, has recognised the need to address the protection of State witnesses as a priority.
This follows numerous killings of witnesses who were meant to testify in serious crime cases.
Most recently during the Yanga “Bara” Nyalara and Wanda Tofile murder trial, the Western Cape High Court heard that two State witnesses were killed. The sole surviving witness had also been attacked but survived.
Due to the unreliable testimony the two accused were acquitted on all 18 charges including 12 murders.
Christine Gumira was murdered on May 25 as she walked to the taxi rank from the court on Church Street. She had been an accused in a murder but had just agreed to be a State witness.
These kinds of killings are not new. In the trial of 28s gang leader George “Geweld” Thomas, 11 witnesses were killed and the other 13 with their 18 dependants had to be placed under witness protection.
Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicolette Bell said the prosecuting authority regarded the safety of all witnesses, its staff, court personnel, and all persons who appear in a court of paramount importance.
“To this end, a voluntary witness protection service is available to witnesses. Any witness who has reason to believe that his or her safety or that of any related person is being threatened by any person, may report the matter and the witness shall be assisted in his or her application for protection.”
Roegshanda Pascoe has declared the witness protection programme in South Africa non-existent.
She has been on the programme since July 2016 when she and Manenberg residents saw Angelo Davids, an alleged member of the Hard Livings gang, attacked and killed.
In a previous interview with the Weekend Argus she stated that she had done the necessary paperwork to be part of the NPA's programme, but knew her family would not be safe and sought help from an organisation she works with.
On March 6, 2019, she survived a shooting when unknown gunmen opened fire on her home, the day before she was to testify. She was moved to safety with her children, three grandchildren and son-in-law.
UCT senior researcher in criminology Dr Simon Howell said there have to be other options to keep witnesses safe.
“A lot of people choose not to enter into such forms of protection because it is disruptive to your entire life. There are significant issues with state witnesses and ensuring their protection. The key vulnerability is when people travel to court because they are known that they have to be at court at a certain time.
“One of the easier solutions would be to allow people to provide witness statements or testimony, and communicate via electronic links such as Zoom so they don't have to be in the vicinity of the court.”
Western Cape provincial police commissioner Thembisile Patekile said they are prepared to take any person to witness protection and encourage people to do that.
“We can’t afford to hear that potential witnesses are dead or killed, we don’t want that. We want to succeed in court. We’ve got so many people who are in witness protection, I don’t know why others are not happy or take the opportunity.
“The NPA is responsible for this and there shouldn’t be a different comfort from what one is used to. You are in another place but there are rules, people may think that the rules are too strict, but it is your life that needs to be protected, and you can’t be seen partying when you are supposed to be in hiding.
“If we don’t find witnesses we stand to lose our cases but the majority of the cases that we won were because of the communities not because of the police, and the physical evidence that we connect the suspects to.
“There may be a few people who are willing to testify and we must refuse to be intimidated by the few criminals. The communities must stand up and say we can’t allow our own children to intimidate us.
Mchunu said the issue of whistle blowers belongs to the Justice Department and he hoped all these weaknesses will be tightened and cleaned up this time around.“
“We are going to close the gap, where we find them. We are meeting with the relevant departments to address these issues,” he said.